An Instrument of Destruction
by Hope the Ghost Writer
Summary: One chinchilla's discovery may negatively alter the future... Rated T for language.
1. In Medias Res

**_A/N_**—_I decided to venture into another fandom: Sonic. :3 For some reason, I've been watching a lot of _Sonic X_ (the Japanese subbed version kicks the 4Kids dub's ass, BTW), playing my Sonic games (I just picked up _Shadow the Hedgehog_ for the first time in a few years, and we got _Sonic Generations_ for Xbox for Christmas)__, watching YouTube videos (like "The Shadow Your Shadow Could Look Like" and "Hedgehogs on Motorcycles"), and basically falling in love with the entire fandom all over again. :3 So...here's my Sonic fanfic. :D_

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><p><em>Where am I?<em>

_What's going on?_

_Why is everything dark?_

_What is all that racket? __I hate loud noises._

You know, I have no idea what just happened. One minute I'm strolling down Emerald Coast, the next I wipe out and wake up...wherever the hell I am. My arms and feet are bound, and my eyes are either blindfolded or just plain blinded. (Please be the first one.) I hear sirens wailing, voices yelling out something about being on high alert, and things exploding. My heart must be the loudest thing of all, as it's pounding harder and louder than a bass drum.

Maybe this all happened because I found that dinosaur of an instrument hidden beneath the sand at the beach. It's one of those...agh, what are they called? Pine lutes? No, wait. Pan flutes. It was a pan flute. Right. Stupid ancient instruments.

Well, since I don't really have anything to do at the moment, let me introduce myself. I'm Voca: a sapphire chinchilla with a feisty disposition and a lot of energy. Most of the time, I wear a black off-the-shoulder tee with a lime green tank top layered underneath, white skinny jeans, and black sneakers that are accented with streaks of lime green. (I'm sure glad that I dress comfortably, as I'm not very cozy at the moment.) Regardless of the fact that I'd be nothing without my sneakers, I'm not much of a runner. I like climbing things, though. That's why I love my sneakers so much; they have great traction—perfect for scaling cliffs and the occasional building.

Hm? Someone's touching the bounds at my feet. (I knew that I wouldn't be able to get my mind off of things for long.) Wait, can I move my feet? Finally! Someone's here to rescue me—at least, I hope this someone's trying to rescue me. The being's also removing the rope from my hands. Wait a minute, I can see again! Don't you love that feeling that you get when you find out that you're not actually blind. Thank God for...wait, who is this dark figure which I see before me? He's a hedgehog with black fur that has crimson stripes running down the middle of each of the broad quills on his head. There are chunky metal shoes on his feet, and the paint on them is chipping off slightly. I focus in on the stranger's face, and he looks impatient with a hint of concern. But, above both of those traits, he looks serious. His hand is extended out to me. "Look, we need to hurry," he says in a sullen, almost monotone voice. "Eggman's sent robots after me, and, considering that I'm helping you escape, they'll be after you as well."

Without questioning, I grab his hand and let him guide us out of the building. Although we're going at an extremely quick pace (much faster than I'd ever hope to be able to run), I still have a good sense of what's happening around me. Red emergency lights are flashing furiously as they reflect upon the metal walls of the structure. I hear footsteps and yelling from afar. But the voices...they're getting closer.

All of a sudden, someone yells out, "It's Shadow, and he's got the prisoner. Hurry up and close in on them! They're almost at the exit! Close the doors! Gather the others! Don't let them get away!"

"Shadow—so that's your name," I say to my rescuer.

As he gains speed, he tells me, "This is no time for talking. We must escape first."

Behind us, walls drop from the ceilings of past rooms and prevent us from going back. Shadow's right. We need to focus on getting out, especially since we could be locked in at any given moment. Shadow's a fast runner alright—speedier than anyone I've ever seen—but this hallway seems to be going on forever, and the impromptu walls are catching up with us.

Right as the last wall begins to close, Shadow and I make it out of the building. He doesn't stop running, however, and I understand why: he's knows that if we stay there, then they'll get us.

We eventually make it to a quiet, secluded glade in the middle of a densely-wooded forest. Shadow lets go of my hand, then stares at me for a moment. Kinda creeped out, I ask him, "What are you doing?"

"A better question would be," he said in the same voice that he used before, "what were you doing back there?"

"Well, being tied up, obviously."

"That's not what I meant. I meant—"

"How I got to...wherever that was back there. I know. Wait, no, I don't know. The last I can recall, I was at a beach."

"That's it?"

"Well, I did find this neat pan flute in the sand, but I don't see how that has to do with anything."

"Show me it."

I don't know what happened to it. I had it in my bag, but it didn't come out of the building with me, and I don't recall seeing it when I was back there. "Yeah. About that."

"Great." Shadow's voice is beginning to sound irritated. "I have no idea how a pan flute could be so important to someone like Eggman, but if he has it, he probably has found it to be significant to his cause."

"Wait, what cause?"

Familiar voices are coming from somewhere in the woods. They sound close. "Curses, they're back." Shadow grabs my hand, then pulls out this green jewel from out of nowhere. "Chaos control!" he yells.

Somehow, we teleport out of the glade and into an alley in Station Square. "Alright, so what's going on again?" I ask. "First, I'm tied up and trapped in a building. Then, we're in a glade. And now...we're in Station Square? How did you even do that?"

Shadow tries not to lose his cool. "I'm Shadow. Shadow the hedgehog. You were just trapped in Eggman's base. You do know who Eggman is, right?"

"I'm afraid not, man. I'm still kinda new to Station Square."

"Then I have a lot of explaining to do."


	2. Knowledge is Power

"So, let me get this straight," I say. "Eggman is the reason why there's a hole in the moon?"

"Yes," Shadow confirms. "I'm guessing this means that you don't watch the news. Or the sky."

"Oh, shut up!" I shout. "I'm not from around these parts, okay. Yeah, I don't watch the news, but that's because I don't like much of the shit that's on TV in the first place."

"Alright. I get it now. Stop that."

"Hmph." I slouch against the alley wall and slide down to the ground until I'm sitting. "Okay. Getting back _on_ topic...Eggman's some mega-genius that keeps trying to take control of the world using those emerald thingies—"

"_Chaos_ Emeralds," he corrects me.

"Who cares? Okay, so he stole yours, which is how you ended up in his base. But why did you save me?"

He seems to be lost in thought. Shadow explains, "You reminded me of an old friend."

"...Okay?" _Sure. That's not creepy._

"Look," he says, "just be careful next time. Chances are, Eggman will be after you again. Whatever you do, don't give into his demands, requests, pleas, et cetera. He is extremely dexterous at getting people to do his dirty work. I should know. I was one of them."

_Okay, but I'm still lost, dude._ _Seriously—what the hell is going on?_

"I must be going; this Emerald needs to be put in a safe place. You're on your own here, but if you need further aid, I suggest finding my acquaintance Sonic. He's a blue hedgehog. You can't miss him. (Well, technically you can, but—agh, I'm straying from the point.)"

"Thanks...?"

"No problem. If you find a gemstone like this, keep it safe and keep it hidden. If there's one thing that Eggman's always looking for, it's a Chaos Emerald." He puts the green Chaos Emerald in front of him to give me a good glimpse at it before he shouts out, "Chaos control!"

In a flash of light, Shadow is gone.

**-x-**

I'm walking down the block, trying to piece together the puzzle that Shadow left for me.

Okay, so Eggman's bad. (I think we've established that already.) He wants the seven Chaos Emeralds. He has my pan flute. He blew up the moon. Don't know why, but he did. Basically, he shouldn't be messed with. But what does he look like? I never actually _saw_ him. How can I avoid him if I don't know what he looks like?

Shadow did tell me who that Sonic guy was, though. He's a blue hedgehog. That's about it. I'm not sure what Shadow meant by how I "technically can" miss him, but I don't think that a blue hedgehog will be hard to spot. Maybe he can explain what's going on.

Back on the topic of the pan flute...what the heck is that thing anyhow? I mean, really, nobody plays those things anymore. What could be so special about it?

As I pass the library, I stop where I am and look up at the grand building. It's large and lined with bricks that are slightly worn. I walk up the concrete steps leading to the glass door leading inside of the building. As I peer through the transparent door, I see books—hundreds of them—lined on bookshelves stretching from wall to wall and extending from the ceiling to the floor. There are people inside, but not many. I assume it's open and think to myself, _If Shadow couldn't stick around to help me, then maybe books can give me a hand._

**-x-**

"No," I mutter to myself, "no...aha! Found it!"

I'm standing on a tall ladder, looking for a book on ancient artifacts, when I find it—the book I've been searching for, entitled _A History Told Through Relics_. It appears to be set up like an encyclopedia, so I try searching through the "P" section. No luck. I then start flipping through the "F" section.

I hear a propeller-like sound from next to me. I turn my head and see this adorable, yellow fox floating beside me. His tails are spinning like the blades of a helicopter in flight. Wait, _tails_? Like, not one, but two? Talk about unusual...but it's still kind of cool, to be honest. The kid looks like he's ten or something at most. Hesitantly, I ask him, "Can I help you with something?"

As he's pulling a book from the shelf, he turns his head and smiles at me. "I'm looking for this book on flight mechanisms, but it seems to be missing," he explains. _Flight mechanisms? What, is he a mechanic? Kinda young for that kinda stuff, aren't you, pal?_ "I'm thinking it might have been pushed to the back of this shelf, but I can't find it. It's supposed to be here. Could you check over there for me?"

"Wait, what are you doing on this end of the nonfiction area?" I ask. His book should be on an entire different shelf. Why would he look in the 900s? He should be looking in the 500s or 600s.

"When I looked up the book in the computer's catalogue, it somehow came up as being over here. Maybe there was a mixup a long time ago when the book was added to the system."

I look in the back of the bookshelf where I found my book, and I see the faint image of a thick volume. I pull it out. It's dusty, so I blow the particles off of it. The book's name is _Flight Technologies of the Past, Present, and Impending Future. __Oh. That makes sense now._

"Is this it, little guy?" I show the book to the flying fox.

He smiles brightly—cherubically, in a way. "Yeah! Thanks a lot!" he cheers. I hand the book over to him. As he flips through the book, I ask him, "So, do you build model planes or something?"

"Even better: full-sized aircraft!" he explains with zeal.

I give him a follow-up question: "Aren't you kind of young to be building planes and stuff?"

"I don't think so, no. I feel like if you want to do something, then age limits implied by society shouldn't keep you from reaching your dreams."

_Damn, that was deep._ _Who knew such erudite knowledge could come from a kid?_

He adds, "I haven't really built anything in a while; I just need ideas on how to improve upon my friend Sonic's plane. What better place to get inspiration than the past, right?"

_Sonic? Like the guy Shadow was telling me about?_

I don't ask him about Sonic; instead, I comment, "Cool!"

He peers over my shoulder and asks me, "What are you reading about?"

"Artifacts," I tell him truthfully. _This might be my chance to bring Sonic into the conversation. _"I found this ancient pan flute on the beach earlier. I'm trying to learn more about it."

"That sounds awesome! Can I see it?"

I'm silent for a few moments. _Should I bring my story up so early into our conversation? Hell, I barely know this kid._ "Uh, I don't have it on me anymore." Nervously, I resume flipping through the "F" section of the book once again. "Someone took it from me when I wasn't looking."

"That's terrible! I hope you find—"

Right in the middle of the fox's sentence, I come across a sketch of the artifact: the pan flute, with all of its detail. My encounter with it at the beach is coming back into memory; I remember running my hand along each of the seven tubes. (The weird part is that there are eight notes in a scale, so I don't know if that was an error or what.) I remember blowing a puff of air through one of them, and I remember seeing a guy get attacked by seagulls soon after. The entire moment—verbatim, crystal clear in my mind. "I found it!" I exclaim.

The fox looks a little thrown off-guard—either because I interrupted him or because I said that I had found the flute that I told him was stolen. "Huh?"

I show him the page in the book. "This is what it looks like," I tell him as I point at the drawing.

He starts reading the passage beneath it out loud: "The Emerald's Flute was crafted a long time ago by a member of the ancient tribe that watched over the Master Emerald hundreds of years ago. Legend has it that when the flute is exposed to a Chaos Emerald, the flute can cause mayhem that increases in volume when more of the Chaos Emeralds come into contact with it; this will only happen if someone plays the note corresponding to the Chaos Emerald exposed to it. For example, the green Chaos Emerald will cause everyone within a specific radius, with the exception of the musician, to freeze in time until the musician plays the note once more. When all seven Chaos Emeralds are within a close proximity of the Emerald's Flute, destruction is not the result, as what may be expected from such a powerful instrument; instead, the flute will grant the holder's greatest desire. This can be reversed, but only by a descendant of the tribe that used to protect the Master Emerald."

"Shoot," I mutter with concern. "That can't be good." I recall all of Shadow's warnings about Eggman. Finally, I realized why he would need both my flute and the Chaos Emeralds.

"Why's that?" asks the fox, who must've overheard me.

I reluctantly explain, "What if I told you that, uh, a guy named Eggman stole the flute from me?"


	3. Planes and Pains

"So, wait, where are we going again?" I ask the fox as we scurry down a block.

He explains, "To my workshop in Mystic Ruin. Not only are we going to have to try and figure out where the Chaos Emeralds are, but we're going to have to think of a way to break back into Eggman's base so we can get that flute back. But don't worry; everything usually works out in the end. With me and Sonic on your side, we can fix everything in no time! You checked out the book before you left, right?"

I hold up the book. "Right here," I confirm.

"Great!" the fox cheers. For someone who's dealing with such a solemn situation, he's handling it pretty well. It's kind of inspirational, in a way, to see someone so positive at a time like this.

Before we know it, we're standing in front of the train station. We purchase our tickets for the next trip to Mystic Ruin, then make a mad dash to the train—which is departing in, oh, I don't know, five minutes. Regardless of the limited time frame, we make it just in time. As soon as we're seated, the two of us pant to catch our breath. The train doors slam shut, and it finally leaves the station.

"You know, I never got your name," the fox points out.

I introduce myself: "I'm Voca. Nice to meet you..."

"...Tails. My real name's Miles Prower, but everyone calls me Tails. Nice to meet you, too."

_Tails. What a quirky, yet appropriate nickname._

The two of us shake hands. Tails then asks me, "So, Voca, could you tell me more about what happened when the Emerald Flute was stolen?"

I explain the whole story—or at least the bits that I was aware of—up until the moment where Shadow disappeared in the alley. I conclude by saying, "Shadow told me to find Sonic if I needed assistance."

"He always seems to be in a rush," Tails explains. "Its like he always has something to do."

"You also know Shadow?"

"It's a long story. But why would he have one of the Chaos Emeralds?"

I shrug as my way to tell Tails that I have no idea how it ended up that way. "Not sure. He said it was his, and that Eggman had stolen it from him. He used it as some sort of method of teleportation. It was kinda cool, actually."

"He used Chaos Control," Tails explains. "With the power of a Chaos Emerald, Shadow can teleport to different locations. I still haven't figured out how Chaos Control even works with only one Chaos Emerald, but it's possible."

I blink a few times, not sure at what the hell Tails just told me. "Uh, what?"

"I'll explain that later."

"Thanks. Damn, never expected that finding that pan flute would make my life so much more confusing."

"It seems to happen like that a lot. Don't worry; you'll get used to it."

"Well, that's a relief." I slouch down into my seat and exhale. I close my eyes, and stress escapes my body. For the first time all day, I actually feel at ease. I think about Shadow again, which leads me to bring up the question: "How are we going to find Shadow?"

"Hm?" Tails' ears perk up. He gives me a confused look, wondering where I'm going with this.

"Well, he has one of the Emeralds. We're going to need to get him to hand it over somehow."

"You're right, but maybe we should just wait until we get back to my workshop to talk about this. You look stressed."

I want to yell at him, _"I'm not stressed!"_ but he and I both know that's a big ass lie. Instead, I close my eyes and meditate for a moment. _Inhale...exhale... _Phew. Feeling better already.

**-x-**

"Look at all the trees!" I say in amazement the moment after Tails and I step off the train. If there's one thing I know, it's that where there's trees, there's climbing. I completely forget about what I was so concerned about while I was on the train before. Wait, what _was_ I concerned about again?

Ah, who cares? TREES! I feel like I haven't done any climbing since I first arrived in Station Square. (Well, there _was_ that one time that I was wall jumping between two buildings, but that's not exactly "climbing.") How long ago was it? A week? Again, who cares? The thing is, if I don't do some climbing soon, I might explode. "TREES!" I exclaim as I dash over to the nearest oak.

As I begin climbing it, Tails flies over and hovers next to me. "What are you doing?" he asks with curiosity.

"Climbing," I answer. "Isn't it obvious?"

Within a minute or two, I'm already sitting on a branch at the very top of the tree. I take a whiff of fresh air and sigh. _I should have came here a long, long time ago. Much more entertaining and relaxing than Station Square, that's for sure_.

Tails giggles. "I've never seen someone go from so stressed to so docile just like that."

"If there's one thing that gets my mind off of stuff, it's climbing. Not many places to climb in the city."

"Guess you've got a point there. But shouldn't we get going? Sonic—"

Right. The Emerald Flute. The Chaos Emeralds. Eggman. There goes my fun. But I guess saving the world from impending doom's a little more important. Just a little.

**-x-**

"Sonic! Sonic, you here?"

It's dead quiet in Tails' workshop. Regardless, it's kinda cool. I mean, look at all of these gadgets and stuff. For a kid, Tails is pretty intelligent. He's got blueprints for planes, strange devices...shoes? I don't know. But he's got all of these prototypes for all of these mechanisms and stuff as well. I must say—I'm impressed.

After calling for Sonic some more, Tails walks over to me and says, "He must've went out for a run or something. He'll be back soon. Feel free to look around in the meantime."

"Thanks." I sit down on a chair near a table of blueprints and pick one up to look at it while we wait for Sonic's return. A to-scale drawing is depicting some sort of aircraft—like a small plane of some sort. In big, capitalized lettering, I see the words, "TORNADO IV" _You mean there's more than one?_

"Tails, was this the plane you were telling me about before?" I ask.

The yellow fox scurries over and looks at the blueprints for a moment before saying, "Yeah, but this is only a sketch of what it's going to look like after I remodel the Tornado III. Do you want to see it?"

With both inquisitiveness and eagerness, I answer, "Sure!"

**-x-**

"Wow," I muse as I take in the sight of the Tornado III. "This is incredible! You built this yourself?"

"Mhm," Tails modestly answers.

"It's incredible! I've never seen anything like this."

He blushes. "Thanks! I'm glad you like it."

_I hope I get to ride in this thing someday.__ That would be almost as awesome as climbing. No. It would be equally awesome, if not awesome-r. The craftsmanship on this thing is flawless and second-to-none. I've never seen technology this advanced in...well, ever._

"I wish I could give you a quick flight around Mystic Ruin, but something's wrong with the Tornado, which is why I was going to give the plane an update in the first place. Besides, we have to wait for Sonic."

I nod with understanding, then return to examining the aircraft. "Well, since we aren't doing anything, why don't we try and fix it? I'd love to help, and it'll help the time pass."

Tails smiles and nods with agreement. "Sounds like a great idea!"

**-x-**

As Tails and I are working on improving the landing mechanisms of the Tornado III, an annoying whine wails from somewhere. "Tails!" she calls out. "Tails, have you seen Sonic?"

A pink hedgehog knocks down the door that connects the main workshop to the garage. She's holding this freaking humongous red-and-gold hammer. (At least now I know how she knocked down the door.) Her spikes are short, and the ones on her head fall like a bob haircut. She's wearing a red tank top dress with white trim. She also has matching boots on her feet and white gloves on her hands. Her eyes are green and filled with a compound of anger and worry. First, she looks at Tails, expecting an answer.

Then, she glares at me, and suspicion replaces the past emotions portrayed by her eyes. "Who exactly are _you_?" she demands to know. "Sonic is _my boyfriend_, so back off!"

She raises her hammer into the air and charges towards me. I crouch down to the floor and attempt to shield myself with my arms. I shut my eyes so I don't have to watch the shit be beaten out of me. _What the hell did I do to her?_

Before the brat has a chance to hit me, Tails runs in front of me to stand in her way. "No, Amy, don't!" he requests as he frantically flails his arms. She puts her hammer down, but she doesn't look happy about it. "She's not here to date Sonic!"

"Then why _is_ she here?" Amy asks. She puts her hands on her hips.

"She needs our help to get an artifact back from Eggman," he explains. "We're also going to need to collect the Chaos Emeralds so we can keep them away from him as well."

Amy sighs. "Sorry," she tells me honestly. Tails moves aside, and Amy walks closer to me. She holds her hand out in front of me—her way of apologizing for trying to pummel me to a pulp, I guess. Cautiously, I grab her hand and shake it. _You're still a crazy psycho chick, _I decide. But at least she's apologizing. As we finish shaking hands, she whispers in my ear, "But don't let this make you think that I'm not going to keep an eye on you to make sure that you won't steal my man!"

_Crazy psycho chick. Should that be considered an understatement?_


	4. DON'T TOUCH IT!

_**A/N**_—Sonic CD _reference for the win! 8D I know I have a copy of the original game somewhere...but where is it? :/ I just got it for the iPod, though. ^_^_

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><p>Minutes have turned into hours. It's sunset, and Tails and I are putting the finishing touches on the Tornado III—or should I say the Tornado IV. Amy is sitting in a corner, reading a fashion magazine. Sonic hasn't shown up yet.<p>

Amy groans, then slaps the magazine onto her lap. "Where's Sonic?" she asks for what seems like the ten gazillionth time today. I swear, listening to her groan makes me wish that I was back in Eggman's base again.

As Tails and I finish spray painting the last sections of the plane a bright green (yeah, it was my idea), the large garage door that leads to the runway slowly starts to rise. I stop spraying and stare at the door. "Tails!" I point out.

Tails and Amy focus on the door as well. They're smiling. Should I be smiling, too? Wait, I'm confused.

Once the garage door has fully risen, a blue hedgehog comes into view. "Sonic!" Tails and Amy cheer.

Amy dashes over to Sonic and gives him a tight hug. "H-Hi, Amy..." Sonic manages to stifle out of his mouth as the crazy psycho chick practically suffocates him to death.

I go next to Tails and whisper him the question, "Is she always this crazy?"

"About Sonic...yeah," he explains. "It's a long story involving Tarot cards and time-traveling robot doppelgangers."

"Oh," I say. "That makes as much sense as anything."

Sonic manages to push Amy away. He walks towards Tails and I, and Amy is trailing behind him. In my mind, I see cartoon hearts rising above her head. Never in all my life have I seen anyone be so hopelessly in love with a guy who most likely doesn't love her back. Like I said, she's a crazy psycho chick.

"Hey, Tails," he begins to ask, "who's your friend?"

"This is Voca," he answers, introducing me. "We need to help her with something."

**-x-**

"It sounds like we'll need to find Knuckles and ask him about it," Sonic decides. "If anyone would know anything more about this, it's him."

"Well, let's split up," Tails suggests. "Sonic, you go look for Knuckles. Amy, you search Station Square for Chaos Emeralds. Voca, you search for them in Mystic Ruin. I'll look on Emerald Coast."

"Sounds like a plan!" Sonic gives him a reassuring thumbs up.

Amy seems somewhat discouraged by the fact that she can't search for Knuckles with Sonic, but she tells everyone that she's okay with it.

I also think it's a wise plan—even though I'm probably going to be wandering around aimlessly the whole time. But the good part is that I'll get to learn how to navigate this place. Oh, and I'll get to climb trees, which is somewhat besides the point. I give Tails a thumbs up and a smile. "Count me in!" I cheer.

**-x-**

"Okay, let's see..." I mutter to myself as I wander aimlessly through Mystic Ruin. "...so, I've already gone down this path...and this path...and this path...so, how did I end up back here? How did I even get here again? Where is here?" I've passed the same moss-covered boulder three times. All of the trees seem to be rearranged in the same recurring pattern. I keep coming across this same area over and over again. I've found nothing so far, and it's been—what, an hour? God, this is hopeless. Forget the Chaos Emeralds. I just wanna get out of here already.

On the bright side, we waited until early this morning to embark on our individual searches, so I can at least see the forest floor in front of me.

I'm fed up, so I decide to climb to the top of the nearest tree. _Maybe I can climb my way out of here, _I think.

The view up here is magnificent. Rising from above the trees are grand mountains. The morning sun is just starting to rise above their apexes. I can also see the top of a...what is it called? Not quite a pyramid, but...a ziggurat! Yeah. That's it. The tip of a ziggurat peeks through the forest surrounding it. It looks interesting, so I decide to head for it. This time, instead of walking around not knowing where the hell I'm going, I'm just going to climb. Probably should've stuck with climbing in the first place.

**-x-**

I'm standing in front of the ziggurat, giving it a closer look than I could before. It doesn't look too exciting—just a bunch of decrepit blocks of stone piled on top of each other. There's a staircase going through the center of the side I'm looking at. I see something sparkle from one of the higher levels, so I decide to ascend to the top and examine the sparkling's source.

When I reach the correct level, I look to my right and see a blue gem on the farther end of the level. I carefully position myself on the level and slowly approach the stone. When I'm directly next to it, I hold onto the level above me with one hand and attempt to grab the stone with the other. I almost fall, but I catch myself just in time. Once the gem is in my hand, I take a good look at it. _Could this be a Chaos Emerald?_ I ask myself. I mean, the green one Shadow had looked a lot like this (and, if I may add, a green Chaos _Emerald_ would make much more sense than a blue one), but I don't know. I'll take it anyhow. (Of course, that damn Eggman guy took my bag, so I have no choice but to hold the Chaos Emerald until I find my way back.)

I ever-so cautiously make my way back to the stairs. Once I'm safely back where I'm supposed to be, I sit down on the stairs and give the Chaos Emerald a good scrutinizing. It's a deep, sapphire-like blue that has the transparency and overall appearance of a diamond, and it's roughly the size of a softball. I honestly don't see what's so special about it, but Shadow told me to keep these things safe, and Sonic and his friends seem to be taking this whole thing seriously (though I question whether-or-not Amy can take _anything_ but her "pseudo relationship" seriously).

The sun's high in the sky, so it's probably around noon. I never expected it to have taken me so long to get here from where I was earlier. I think climbing trees will be difficult with this Chaos Emerald in hand, so I guess I better start trying to find my way back now so I can (hopefully) return to Tails' workshop before nightfall.

**-x-**

It's probably about three in the afternoon. I'm lost. Again. This time around, however, I'm actually seeing some new surroundings, which I hope is a good sign. I'm seeing rivers, travelers—hell, I even saw this quaint little clubhouse earlier. I haven't found Tails' workshop yet, but—considering that the paths I'm taking are more interesting, and considering that I actually might have found a Chaos Emerald—I'm not as irritated as I was prior.

I seem to have found myself alongside one of the mountains. But hello—what's this? There's a hole in this section of the mountain. Okay, I'm curious. I decide to go in, guessing that it's going to take me a while to find my way back anyhow. I have nothing to lose, right?

**-x-**

It was a dark journey, but I think I've found the exit. I see light pouring in through a hole that's slightly smaller than the one I entered the cavern through. I tumble out of it awkwardly and land on my face. After I push myself up and dust myself off, I look around. Part of me is focused on the surroundings, the other part is focused on whether or not someone saw me fall like that. (Hey, I didn't expect for there to be a sudden drop!)

Okay, there's nobody here. Good. I can't imagine what would've happened if there were people here. Either I would've opted for an awkward cover-up or everyone would start laughing at me. Both scenarios are embarrassing.

This place is so...enchanting, I suppose. It's a bright, sunny field. The grass is greener than any I've ever seen. There are no trees, which I guess is a downside, but it's also an upside because I can actually see where everything is. There is a slightly worn-out rope bridge connecting this field to what appears to be a floating island. I see something bright and glowing on the island. Is that...an oversized emerald? My curiosity has just reached a whole new level. I'm going in.

I make it across the bridge safe and sound. (That bridge is a lot sturdier than it looks.) In front of me is a large, stone structure—a pedestal with crumbling pillars atop it. The pillars encircle a gigantic green gem. It looks like Shadow's Chaos Emerald, except it's probably about 1000 times larger. I walk closer to it to check it out. Once I'm directly in front of it, I stare it down for a few moments. I'm trying to decide whether or not touching the thing is a good idea. I look down at my Chaos Emerald, and then I look up at the gigantic gemstone. Something tells me that they're meant to be together—like a packaged deal or something. Maybe the Chaos Emerald brought me here.

I extend my hand out to touch the enormous gem, but before my hands can graze upon a single facet, I hear a furious voice yell, "GET AWAY FROM THE MASTER EMERALD!"


	5. You're Doing it Wrong

Everything's happening so fast. One second, I'm a spectator—a mere bystander. The next second, I'm being pinned to the ground by some overprotective red echidna. "What, are you crazy?" he yells at me. "If anything happened to the Master Emerald, then this whole island could fall out of the sky! It's already happened a few times. My duty is to keep that from happening again."

I remark, "Well, guess we're not very good at our job, are we?"

The echidna grits his teeth. "Excuse me?"

"I'm just saying."

"Tell me, what are you doing here..." He looks down at my hand, which still has a tight grasp on the Chaos Emerald. "...and where did you get that Chaos Emerald?"

"Well, for starters, I have no sense of direction," I explain. "I found the Chaos Emerald on some ziggurat at Mystic Ruin."

"Give it to me."

"No. It's mine and I need it."

Through his teeth, he growls, "I SAID, 'GIVE IT TO ME.'"

"How about you get off of me first?"

"Not until you give it to me!"

He tries to grab it from my hand, but I manage to shove my knee into his stomach before he can. He flinches, which gives me just enough time to get back on my feet. I push him to the ground and run as fast as I possibly can. I'm holding the Chaos Emerald with both hands so I don't drop it as I sprint across the bridge. Right as I make it back onto solid ground, the echidna knocks me to the ground again. I'm on my stomach, so kneeing him in the gut isn't a possibility this time. I'm trying to push myself up, but this dude is a lot heavier than he looks. (Damn, he's pretty strong, too.) Oh shit. He just grabbed the Emerald from my hand. He's going down.

My adrenaline's pumping now. As a result, I'm able to (finally) throw him off of my back. Once he is standing, a fist fight commences. Neither one of us is winning. The most we're doing is beating the shit out of each other. I'll be honest: it's actually kinda fun.

However, the fun ends when someone yells, "Yo, Knucklehead, what do you think you're doing?" It's Sonic. This must be the last destination on his agenda.

The echidna and I simultaneously whip our heads towards him. Other than that, though, we're frozen in place. My hands are grasping the "knucklehead's" shoulders so tightly that I'm practically digging my claws into his flesh—which really won't do any damage to him, considering the fact that my claws aren't exactly the strongest. The echidna's right arm is in the air, and it appears to be in the process of punching my face. "Hey...Sonic," Knucklehead hesitates to say. _Wait a minute—they know each other?_

"Knuckles, Voca—what the heck happened?" Sonic asks us.

Knuckles and I begin to have a competitive screaming match. We're both trying to tell our individual stories in a way that makes the other person look bad. Sonic looks displeased, but everything changes when he sees the Chaos Emerald in Knuckles' left hand. "Knuckles, a Chaos Emerald—!" Sonic points out.

No way am I letting that knucklehead bask in what should be my glory. "HEY! I found it—not him!" I exclaim. "He stole it from me!"

"Yeah, well where did _you_ steal it from?" Knuckles retaliates.

"I didn't steal it from anywhere!"

Here comes the bickering once again.

"You guys are acting like little kids!" Sonic tries to tell us.

We stop yelling at each other for the moment and realize that Sonic's right; we both sound a bit childish.

I decide that this is the perfect time to get that Chaos Emerald back. I fake an apology by saying, "Sorry, man." We shake hands, and I snatch the Chaos Emerald from his other hand. I stick my tongue out at him and run off. He's waving his fist in the air, yelling, "WHAT THE HELL? GET BACK HERE WITH THAT!"

I manage to escape through the tunnel and return to the woods just before Knuckles can catch up with me. I'm looking at the Chaos Emerald, mentally praising myself for getting the Emerald back and for, well, surviving that encounter. But then I realize something: "OH SHIT. I'M LOST AGAIN."

Should've thought that one through a bit more...

Guess I have no choice but to go back...AGAIN. (Won't this be fun?)


	6. Agree to Disagree

_**A/N-**I updated the chapter because I re-read it and found a bunch of verb tense issues. -_-; This is what I get for writing at night on Super Bowl Sunday._

* * *

><p>"Hey! If you've actually got the nerve to come back in here, then I want that Chaos Emerald—"<p>

_Damn knucklehead._ "Dude, I just need Sonic to show me back. I wouldn't have even gotten here if I had a better sense of direction."

"Ohohoho, I'm going to knock a sense of direction into you once I'm done—"

Right as Knuckles prepares to ram into me and start pummeling me to a measly pulp, Sonic stands in front of him and shouts, "Dude, stop!"

"Why _should_ I?" Knuckles asks.

**-x-**

"Oh," Knuckles realizes. "That's why." He looks somewhat embarrassed. He should. That's no way to treat a lady.

I'm actually comfortable standing within a few feet of Knuckles now, so I slowly approach him and ask him, "Do you know anything about the Emerald Flute?"

He explains, "A bit, but not much. It shares power between the Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald. If the Master Emerald is left _alone..._" He gives me a sneer. _Don't be a smartass_, I think as I stick my tongue out at him. "...then the Flute can channel the power of the Chaos Emeralds. Without the Master Emerald, it can't work. I'm surprised the thing even exists, though. As far as I know, it only exists in legend."

"Well, apparently not," I tell him. "I've gotten into some nasty trouble with that Eggman dude because of it."

Knuckles looks shocked. "That's not good," he tells us.

"No, _really__?__" _I react sarcastically. "Thanks for the heads-up, Captain Obvious."

He clenches his teeth and squeezes his fingers into a fist. "Don't push me," he growls.

"Should've thought of that before you pushed me—literally!" I remark.

Right as Knuckles and I are about to break out into another fight, Sonic stands between us. "I think Eggman and I get along better than this," he mutters under his breath.

"Hey, stay out of this," I demand as I wag my finger in the hedgehog's face.

"_As I was about to say_, if we can all round up the Chaos Emeralds, I can hide them all somewhere Eggman would never think to look," Knuckles strategized.

Sonic shakes his head disapprovingly. "I don't think that's such a good idea," he disputes. "I mean, you always end up trusting Eggman for some reason I have not figured out yet, and he always ends up with the Chaos Emeralds as a result."

"HEY! You and I both know that I don't trust Eggman. I'm the guardian of the Master Emerald. The Chaos Emeralds are linked to the Master Emerald, so they're technically my responsibility."

For once, I agree with Knuckles. "He's right," I say. "I can't hold onto them, since Eggman's probably going to come back for me, and I have the impression that you and Eggman aren't quite 'buddy-buddy,' so you can't hold on to them, Sonic. I doubt that Tails' workshop is a great place to hold onto them, and I don't trust Amy in the least 'cos she's kind of a ditz..."

Knuckles folds his arms and shoots me an approving grin. "Furball and I seem to be seeing eye-to-eye this time," he points out. I clench my teeth, and my ears start spazzing. Furball. GOD. That brings back bad memories. REALLY bad memories. That's a story for another time, though.

Sonic sighs and taps his foot. "As much as it pains me to say this...fine. You can hide the Chaos Emeralds."

Knuckles chuckles. (Haha. Rhyming.) "I knew you'd see it my way."

He pats Sonic on the back, then attempts to give me a fist bump. I consider leaving him hanging, but Knuckles is kind of...intimidating. Trying to befriend him might not be a bad idea, so I pound my fist into his.

It's eventide, and night is quickly approaching. "We probably should head back to Tails' workshop now, Voca," Sonic suggests. "Knuckles, you wanna join us?"

He shrugs and figures, "Eh. Why not."

Fun. I get to walk back with a guy I barely know and another guy who isn't exactly fond of me. This is going to be...interesting, I suppose. But hey, the protection from having the two of them around is reassuring. (Still, why couldn't Knuckles have just rejected Sonic's offer?)


	7. Lovers Gonna Hate?

Believe it or not, Knuckles and I didn't kill each other on the way back. We kinda just gave each other the cold shoulder the whole time.

Okay, so we're all back at Tails' workshop, just sitting on the floor and stuff. It's quite obvious that Sonic did his job, considering that he found Knuckles (even though I unintentionally found him first, but whatever). Amy accomplished _nothing_. She says that she looked all over Station Square and couldn't find a Chaos Emerald; however, it appears to be that Amy went shopping instead, considering that she's wearing a brand-new purple scarf and some golden costume jewelry.

Tails holds up a familiar silver chain with a red gem dangling from it. "I didn't find a Chaos Emerald, but I did find this," he tells us. "It was just kinda buried beneath the sand. I don't think the gem's a Chaos Emerald, but—"

"—it's mine," I interrupt. I walk over to him and pick up my pendant. After all I'd gone through today, I had almost forgotten about it. My father gave it to me the night before he died. This pendant has so much sentimental value to me. I hug Tails to express my gratitude. "Thanks for finding this," I say. "It means a lot."

"Oh, you're welcome," he says back, somewhat unsure as to what just happened. He doesn't understand how much this means to me.

I sit back down on the floor, then put the necklace around my neck. As I stare down at the gem dangling from the necklace, Amy asks me, "What's so special about that thing anyhow?"

"It's nothing," I tell her. My voice cracks as I reiterate, "Just—nothing."

"...Anyway," Tails continues, "I found it pretty far down the beach. Nobody was there, but I did find a bunch of stuff that was left behind from when someone _was__ once_ there."

Curious, I ask, "Like what?" If he found my pendant, then maybe he found where I was before Eggman kidnapped me. It could help me figure out exactly what happened to me then.

"Well, a towel, some sunblock, and I think a pair of sunglasses and a messenger bag."

My bag. He found my bag! "That's all my stuff!" I cheer. "Could you take me back there tomorrow? I'd kinda like my stuff back. Especially my bag. I could've used it when I found this earlier."

I hold up the Chaos Emerald to show Amy and Tails. Knuckles shoots me a look, as it must bring back bad memories from our first encounter earlier today.

"That brings our grand total up to one!" Tails cheers.

"Not much of an accomplishment," Amy sneers, "now is it?"

"Hey, watch your mouth, Pinky!" I snap.

Knuckles adds, "Amy's right. We still need the other six."

"For all we know," Sonic elaborates, "Eggman could have a few."

I sigh. "Which means we'll have to go find them eventually," I grumble. _Do we really have to go back there?_

Sonic states with a positive tone, "Knuckles and I can handle that. We'll try to scout out and take down Eggman; you three can go and get Voca's stuff back."

A sigh of relief escapes my mouth. _Thank God._

"We should probably get some rest," Tails suggests. "Let's all meet back here tomorrow to discuss our strategy."

Knuckles nods and leaves, heading back to his giant emerald thing. (What did he call it again? The Master Emerald?) Sonic rushes out, and Amy (of course) follows behind. Tails begins to head for a flight of stairs in the corner of the room, but then turns around and looks at me, noticing that I haven't left yet. "You don't have anywhere to go?" he asks me.

"Not really," I say. "I mean, I don't exactly have a place yet. I stayed in a hotel for one night, but the rest of the time I kinda just slept in trees in the park—which, quite frankly, I don't mind."

"You could always stay here," he offers. "I have a spare mattress somewhere. I could set it up for you down here, if you'd like."

I smile at his generosity. "Thanks, Tails," is all I tell him.

**-x-**

The next morning, I wake up with Amy staring me in the face.

Creep.

"Hey guys, she's awake!" she calls out to the others.

I sit up and rub my head. "Ugh, Amy, really?" I complain. "I just got up. Could you _not_ yell?"

"Could you _not_ hit on my boyfriend?" she snaps.

I give her a "what the hell are you talking about?" look, then realize, _Oh right. This is the crazed psycho chick we're talking about._ "When the hell did I say that I was hitting on him? Damn, you're one jealous little—"

"Guys, we've got to get going," Knuckles points out impatiently.

In an equally-impatient manner, Sonic agrees, "Yeah! I can't just wait here forever."

Right as Sonic and Knuckles are ready to sprint out the door, I beg, "God, at least take Amy if you're gonna run off like that. I mean, she's got that hammer (that she almost killed me with yesterday), and—"

"Nope," Sonic refuses. _Damn._ "Good luck with that." He and Knuckles are gone before I could even yell at Sonic. _Shit. Now I'm stuck with psycho over here_.

"You're right," Amy says to me in agreement, "I _do_ have my hammer." She picks it up from a corner of the room and grasps the handle tightly. "Don't try anything—"

"For the millionth time, I won't!" I interrupt. "GOD. Can we just go already?"

**-x-**

We all arrive at the beach—and, remarkably enough, in one piece as well. Tails directs us to where he found my stuff, which is good considering that I barely remember where I when I was kidnapped yesterday. We're standing in front of a cliff that has a cavern dug into it. The sight clicks in my mind. _Yeah, this was it_. Before Tails can say anything about how this was the place, I run over to it to get my stuff.

As I begin to shove all of my stuff in my messenger bag, Amy walks over to where my sunglasses are and picks them up. "Ooh, I like these," she comments.

I whip my head around and see her putting the shades on her face. "Hey, those are mine!" I yell at her.

She doesn't give them back.

"Amy," Tails says in attempts to help me out, "just give Voca her shades back."

"Not until she apologizes for trying to hit on Sonic."

"I have nothing _to_ apologize for," I tell her. "Whatever happened to that friendly handshake that we had yesterday? I thought we were supposed to be cool and everything."

"Hmph." She reluctantly tosses the sunglasses at me, but her aim sucks, and the glasses end up in a shattered mess on the cold cavern floor.

"Why, you little—" I begin to growl at her.

Amy and I are in battle positions at this point. Her hammer's in her hand; as for me, my fists are up, as they're the most protection that I have against her.

Amy begins swinging her hammer around, and I begin running. Tails tries to end the fight by yelling, "Guys! Stop it!"

But we don't—until this big ass aircraft thing descends down from the sky.


	8. Down the Pitfall

"Doctor Eggman!" Tails exclaims as the aircraft lowers enough so that we can see the tiny image of a fat, bald freak with some freakishly huge ginger mustache. His aircraft looks like the other half of some robot toy I used to have as a kid. It has long, silver arms and an egg-shaped body. The top half of the body is a glass dome that is opened so that Eggman can converse with us. That bitch. Like we're really supposed to care about the shit that comes from his mouth.

I begin to panic, fearing that he will try to kidnap me again. "How the hell did he find us?" I exclaim with worry.

Amy's got her hammer ready, but not so that she could hit me this time. Tails has his fists up, but I feel that he's too nice to hurt anyone. As for me, I'm retreating towards the back of the cave. No way in hell am I going back there.

"Hello, Tails, Amy," Dr. Eggman greets them in a sinister tone. "I believe you have something of mine."

_No, you have something of_ mine._ Get it right._

I shrink to the ground and cover my head. _Don't see me back here. Don't see me back here._

I'm hoping that I'm far enough in the back to not notice where I am.

But, alas, my attempts are futile; his robot extends one of its arms out to grab me. Shit.

Although Amy absolutely hates me, she goes to attack the robot with her hammer—which is kind of hard, considering that the robot is hovering a few feet off of the ground, and also considering that her attacks aren't working. While Eggman's distracted by Amy's failure to beat the shit out of his robot, Tails flies over to me and tries to lift one of the large fingers of the robot's hand. It's not working, and it feels like this damn thing is trying to suffocate me or something. I let out a shriek of pain.

Eggman's no longer entertained by Amy, and he notices that Tails is trying to set me free, so he uses the robot's other hand to swat Tails to the ground. "Tails!" I cry. _If you're gonna hurt me, at least try not to hurt my friends._

After that, Eggman taunts, "How cute. Friendship. Well, it's time for me to go. _Sayonara_, suckers! Ohohohohoho!"

The robot flies off.

_FOR THE LOVE OF GOD._

**-x-**

As we're flying over the ocean, I'm trying to struggle free. Yet with each struggle, the metal hand squeezes me more tightly, and a surge of pain shoots up my body. My breathing is heavy. My time is limited.

I manage to stagger the words, "The hell...do you want...with me...any...way?"

I pant a few times to keep myself alive. This metal death trap is crushing my lungs.

"That flute's been lost for centuries," he vaguely explains. "It obviously found you, out of all people, for a reason."

The robot slightly loosens its grasp on me—enough so that I can breathe, but not so much as to allow me to fall into the ocean. I don't want to go back to near-suffocation again, so I decide to lay off the struggling this time around. Instead, I ask him, "At least tell me where you're taking me."

"You figure it out," is all he tells me.

I repeat: FOR THE LOVE OF GOD.

**-x-**

Eggman lands his robot in the middle of a glade on a fairly-small island that must be half the size of the island that Mystic Ruin's located on. I look around and think to myself, _I've been here before. Shadow used that Chaos Control thing to bring us here when he saved me yesterday._

_Shadow._ The black quills. The red streaks. The sullen voice. I remember it all so clearly. But he's not here, which sucks because I'm being held hostage...again.

On the bright side, I can easily say that one week of living in Station Square has been more interesting than seventeen years at home.

There's a rustling sound coming from nearby. Eggman's distracted, and the robot begins to loosen its grasp on me a little more. I feel like I'm slipping. At first, fear surges through my body. Then, I realize something: _Why am I panicking? __This could easily be my ticket to freedom._

I move my arms in a sort of alternating up-down motion to help speed up the slipping process. Before I know it, I'm crouched down on the ground, with my hands dug into the soil and my head staring up at the metal hand. I begin to tip-toe away, but Eggman notices me, and I'm forced to resort to running.

After a few feet, I turn my head to see what's going on behind me. Eggman's close—really close. I then focus my eyes on the path in front of me, and I see a tree just about three yards ahead of me.

A tree! Why the hell am I running if I'm a much better climber?

Right as Eggman's arm is about to grab me, I make a long jump for the tree. I grab onto one of the weaker branches, but still manage to use it to help me climb up to a sturdier branch. As I ascend to the top, I begin to plan my next move. Then it's off to the next tree, and the next tree, and the next tree after that. Eggman's still on my tail, but he's much farther behind this time. (Okay, so not _that_ much farther behind...but I still actually have a chance to be free this time.)

I'm feeling prideful and confident, when my foot suddenly slips on a wet branch. (To be honest, I don't think that branch was covered with rainwater...Ew.) I begin to fall to the ground. Right as I hit the fertile soil, the ground crumbles, and I fall into a hole. My back hits the floor of the pit, and now it hurts like hell. On the bright side (yes, there's actually a bright side), Eggman's robot seems to have lost track of me, as it just hovered over the pit without acknowledging that I'm here.

Being stuck in a hole, though, is probably just as sucky as being kidnapped by Eggman. In both instances, you don't go anywhere. I mean, I can't climb out of this hole. There are no rocks protruding from the sides, and the walls are too soft to grab as it is. If I try to dig my hands into the walls, the entire pit could come crashing down on me, and I could be buried alive.

On second thought, I'd rather be kidnapped by Eggman.


	9. A Future in Ruins

_**A/N**—Doing something that I've never done before: change the point of view in the middle of the chapter. :O You'll see why later in the chapter._

_And yes, I _did_ have to include Silver. :3_

* * *

><p>"So, what should I do?" I ask myself in a hushed tone. "Should I yell for help and risk being discovered by Eggman (again), or should I try to scale the walls and risk getting caved in?"<p>

Every second makes the first one look like a good option—which is a sad thought.

Okay. Guess I have no choice but to yell.

I cup my hands around my mouth; they're posing as a megaphone—or at least the closest thing I can get to one. Hopefully, this will work.

"HELLO?" I shout to the sky. "IS ANYONE THERE? HELP! PLEASE, SOMEONE ANSWER ME!"

Silence.

"GOD DAMN IT!" I curse to the sky.

Right then, a voice asks, "Is someone there?" I don't know who just said that, but _damn_, his voice is _annoying_. Maybe even a little nerdy-ish.

Who cares? I just want to get out of here. "Down here!" I call. "Get me out of here, whoever-you-are!"

All of a sudden, my body begins to glow blue, and I can't move. My first instinct is fear, but that instinct subsides when my body slowly lifts out of the hole. I see the surface, and in front of me is this light silver hedgehog. His quills are sporting some crazy spiked look in front, but they're more like Sonics in back. There's a tuft of white fur on his chest—just below his neck. He's got white gloves with this glowing circle in each palm, and the gloves are cuffed at the wrists with these golden bracelets. He's got black boots with a bold, white stripe down the middle and a turquoise toe box; they, too, are topped with those golden bracelets. For someone whose voice is so freaking annoying, he actually looks pretty...epic, I guess you could say.

He puts me down on the ground surrounding the opposite end of the hole. I end up on my ass. He runs over to help me up, and I tell him with gratitude, "Thanks for that, dude."

He smiles. "No problem," is his response. He gives me this sort of weirded out look—like there's something about me that freaks him out or reminds him of someone...or something.

"Is—is there something wrong with my face?" I ask him. I rub my face with my dirty palms, which only makes the situation worse (for me, that is).

The hedgehog snaps out of his trance. "No," he answers. "It's—nothing." After giving my face another good look—a more genuine one this time—he chuckles. "...But now there's something wrong with it."

I give him a _no shit, Sherlock_ look. Of course I know there's dirt on my face.

He puts his hand out to me and introduces himself. "I'm Silver."

I grab his hand and shake it. "Voca," I introduce myself. "Thanks again for getting me out of there. That was a pretty cool thing you did there."

"Saving you?"

"No, the psychic stuff."

"Oh. Yeah, I guess you could say that." We begin walking through the forest, and Silver asks me, "How did you get down in that hole anyhow?"

"Long story," is my answer. "...But I don't really have anything to do, and I don't know how to get off of this damn island, so I guess I can tell you. Hope you don't mind. This'll take a while."

**-x-**

We're sitting next to each other on a long, sturdy log when I finish telling him my story.

"...and then I slipped on some disgusting branch and ended up in the hole," I conclude. "The end."

Silver looks somewhat distracted. "Tell me, do you remember exactly what that flute looked like?" he asks without looking at me in the eye.

"Well," I begin, "it was made out of bamboo, and it was tied together with some balsa wood and a long strand of green ribbon. At least, I think it was green. Maybe not. I could've sworn that it was red at one point. I don't really remember much as to what had happened yesterday, so bear with—"

"I think I know what flute you're talking about."

My face shows both enthusiasm and shock. "No way! Do you know where Eggman hid it?"

A beat. "No," he denies. Silver turns his head to me and adds, "But I do know what it can do."

**-x-**

That flute is the reason I came here.

It seems like every time the future gets screwed up, the source of the devastation comes from this time period. I started noticing minor subtleties just a day or two ago. Sidewalks were cracking. Storms were brewing.

Yesterday's when everything fell apart. It was all because of that flute; a villainous, immortal overlord rose to power within seconds, and it was as if over two hundred years of corrupted history had caught up with the present time—well, my present time, that is. That flute gave the anarchist unlimited power and highly destructive abilities. People tried to fight off the demon, but their attempts were useless. The dictator was guarded by a powerful servant that was virtually unstoppable. The servant was used like a puppet, and he controlled her with the flute. She killed many, but not willingly—not consciously.

The most terrifying part is that I'm sitting next to her right now. But I can't tell her that. At least, not yet.

**-x-**

****Silver tells me this story about a dystopian future caused by that flute. "Eggman," I growl. My finger's pointed at him. I don't even need to question Silver to know it's because of Eggman.

"It very well may be," Silver agrees. "I never got a close enough glimpse of the dictator before I escaped that future. However, the dictator's robot army resembled Eggman's, so it's possible."

I get on my feet. "We need to get that flute back," I say, then sigh and add: "I can't believe I'm saying this, but we need to break into Eggman's base."


	10. Epic Robot Fail

Silver and I are standing behind a tree that's about a couple hundred feet away from Eggman's base. "You understand the plan, right?" he asks me.

"You distract the guards, I go in for the kill—err, the flute," I confirm.

He nods his head and instructs, "Don't move in until I give you the signal."

"Got it. What's the signal?"

"It'll be obvious. Get ready for the cue. I'm going in."

Silver departs and charges toward Eggman's headquarters. I peer over the edge of the tree and watch him take action. He uses his psychokinesis to rip the door off of the building. A swarm of robots run out and try to take down Silver, but he uses his psychic powers to defeat the robots. Before long, the robots end up on the ground as piles of shrapnel. Silver rubs his hands together to get the dirt off of his gloves, then looks behind himself to see that I haven't moved.

"Was that the cue?" I yell.

Silver digs his palm into his face. "You were supposed to go while I was defeating the robots," he explains.

"Oh. Sorry."

"Guess we'll have to go in together." A large robot begins to inch up on Silver. "Eggman probably had the time to send out more robots."

"Like the one behind you?" I point out.

He turns around, and there's the angry robot, staring him down. Before Silver has the time to do anything productive, the robot swats him aside and knocks him out. "SHIT!" I swear. The robot heard that, and now it's coming after me. (I really need to stop cursing so much.)

Guess I only have one choice. It's time for me to attack this time. I rummage through my bag and try to see what I can work with. Right now, I have a crushed water bottle, a half-empty bottle of sunscreen (most of the contents got squeezed out when I was being held captive by Eggman earlier), and a frisbee. Everything else was left behind at the beach. At least this time I have something to work with.

I figure that the water bottle is useless to me right now, but the sunscreen might be helpful. Maybe if I squeeze some on the robot...

...who's right in front of me right now...

Okay, time to think fast. I squeeze the remainder of the sunscreen on the robot. It doesn't really do anything, so I just throw the bottle at the robot, which causes it to look down at me and do an identity scan of my person. "Target located," it drones. "Must return to base immediately."

The machine then begins to send its hand down to grab me; luckily, it's on the slow side. I decide to quickly scale the tree I was just hiding behind. When I'm at the top, I can see the head of the robot. I grab the frisbee and jump onto the contraption's shoulders, then begin bashing the frisbee into it's head. Of course, the frisbee is useless, but it catches the robot's attention. It begins to send its hand to its face in attempts of grabbing me. This couldn't have worked out better. _One...two..._

Right as the hand is about to grab me, I jump, and the robot grabs its face instead. Once my feet are firmly planted on the ground, I watch the robot struggle, which makes me laugh. Then, I run over to where Silver is, pick him up, and start running into Eggman's headquarters.

**-x-**

Luckily, Silver isn't unconscious for long. When he wakes up, I stop and let him off of my shoulder. "What happened?" he asks me. That robot really must've hit him hard.

I get him up to speed by telling him: "The robot's stupidity made for an easy escape."

"Oh," he understands, "well, that makes sense..."

"Let's just keep going," I urge. "We've gotta be close."

"Indeed you are," says a familiar voice coming from a loudspeaker. It's Eggman; I know it. "But no closer shall you get."

All of a sudden, walls begin to fall from the ceiling—similar to when they did so yesterday as Shadow helped me break out of here. There are only two walls descending this time; they're moving at a much faster rate, though, and they're also trying to close us in. I don't think Silver and I will make it out.

Then, Silver uses psychokinesis to hold up one of the doors enough so I can slide under it. "Go," he tells me. "Get the flute. I'll get out of here on my own, and you're the one who should get it and not me."

"Wait, why do I have to—"

"No time! Just go!"

I feel bad that I have to leave Silver to be trapped like that, but I trust that he knows what he's doing. I quickly slide under the door, and then it drops to the floor within a second. There's no going back now. I must forge on—with or without Silver's aid.


	11. Prepare to Die

**A/N**—_Princess Bride_ reference FTW. 8D

* * *

><p>I make it to the central controls room in no time flat. Eggman may be a bitch, but he sure was right: Silver and I <em>were<em> pretty close.

Speaking of Silver, I hope he made it out alive. I really should go back. I mean, I owe it to him after he saved me from—

Wait, what am I saying? According to him, the future depends on this flute. If I don't get it from Eggman soon, then Silver's future—no, everyone's future—will forever be a living hell. I don't want that to happen.

_Now, where is that—_

All of the exits connecting this room to the rest of the base have just been blocked off. I literally can't turn back now.

I see the flute sitting atop a pedestal made of various machine wires and gears. I begin to climb the totem, and right as I'm about to grab the Emerald Flute from the pedestal on the top, Eggman, sitting in a floating chair-hovercraft-thing of some sort, comes out from what seems like thin air and snatches it before I can even breathe on it. He laughs a hearty, villainous guffaw and tells me, "Persistent, we are?"

My snarky comeback is: "Yoda, we are? Just give me the flute and no one gets hurt."

"Oh please," Eggman says, not convinced that I'm the least bit powerful. "I saw what you did to my robot. Brains won't be enough to stop me, though. Fighting fire with fire will get you burnt after all."

I roll my eyes. "Because you're _such_ the genius..." I caustically remark.

His face becomes as red as a tomato. "You dare doubt me and my 300 IQ?"

"You dare doubt me and my uncalculated IQ?"

"Fine. You asked for it!" Eggman presses a button on his chair, and I close my eyes, praying to God that I don't die. After a few seconds, I open my eyes, and I'm still alive.

...Wait, what? "So, what was that supposed to accomplish exactly?"

"Obviously not killing you," he pointed out. "If I kill you, then I'll never figure out how you're connected to the Emerald Flute. Besides, I think what I _did_ do would get you to conform."

"Wait, what _did_ you do?"

He laughs maniacally for a few moments.

"What did you _do?"_

**-x-**

Eggman tells me that he smoked out Silver's room with carbon monoxide gas, and I don't know what to do. Should I attack Eggman and avenge Silver's death, or should I just go along with Eggman until I can escape with the flute at the right moment?

I think I'm going to go with beating the shit out of him for that. I owe it to Silver. He died to save the future. He was a martyr, and although I didn't know him awfully well (as we were only friends for about an hour), I honor his sacrifice.

Now the future's in my hands. "My name is Voca," I announce. "You killed Silver. Prepare to die."

Eggman laughs once again. "Do you _really_ think that _you_ can defeat _me_?"

"Do you _really_ think that I can't?"

**-x-**

The fight has been going on in the same endless patten for the past thirty minutes. He shoots missiles at me, and I jump and evade them. Surely someone who claims to have a 300 IQ would have the brains to be more sporadic and unpredictable. However, I shouldn't be one to talk; I haven't done anything but run away like a coward—but, then again, I haven't been able to find the right time to attack, let alone the right strategy to do so.

I swear, either these missiles are getting faster, or I'm wearing out. I mean, I'm not fast to begin with, but outrunning these missiles was _much_ easier thirty minutes ago.

I have no choice but to take a breather, or else I might fall over or something. I stop for not even half a minute, and Eggman's pulling out the big guns—no, really! He shoots this huge missile at me, but I'm too fatigued to run off. I collapse to the floor, and my breathing is even heavier now. I can't get up. It's hopeless now.

Wait, what's that? I hear footsteps; they're obviously not Eggman's or mine, so whose are they?

I hear the feet launch themselves into the air. The missile doesn't hit me, but it hits something else. Was it Eggman, or was it the wall? Or am I dead, and everything's currently just a mirage?

"Shadow," a familiar voice calls out, "get the Emerald Flute! I'll get Voca."

I blink my eyes a few times, but everything seems to be blurry—either from the explosion or from my frailness. A familiar pair of boots is standing in front of my face.

_S—Silver?_

It can't be. Eggman killed him...right? If Shadow's here, then maybe...maybe...

My head hits the ground, and my eyes shut. The most I can recall is someone picking me up from the floor.


	12. Skewed Perception

**A/N**—_Fools! You really thought I would kill Silver? Psh. I'll kill Silver when I kill Shadow. In other words...never. ;D_

_And yes. I do use that classic Silver quote from _Sonic '06_ in there somewhere. ;D I had to. I—I just had to. You won't understand. XP_

* * *

><p>I see images of a world up in flames—with buildings collapsed and people running for shelter. Robots march through the streets, vaporizing anything or anyone that get in their way. They look like Eggman's robots. That's how Silver described the dictator's robots to look like.<p>

So wait, is this the dystopian future that Silver was warning me about? Am I dreaming, or am I traveling through time and space? I'm floating over this whole scene. Can anyone actually see me from up here? What the hell is going on?

The scene moves me to a building that's spick and span—unlike all of the other buildings, which are dilapidated and slowly crumbling to the ground. I'm ushered inside by some invisible force. The first thing I see is someone sitting upon a throne. He's got an egg-shaped body, a small head, a gigantic mustache, a bald head, and a royal garb. Eggman. He _is_ the future dictator of the world. But...how? The flute...

_When all seven Chaos Emeralds are within a close proximity of the Emerald's Flute, destruction is not the result, as what may be expected from such a powerful instrument; instead, the flute will grant the holder's greatest desire._

The book. It's just like what the book said.

That means that Eggman will end up getting a hold of all seven Chaos Emeralds—not to mention the Emerald Flute as well.

_Oh no, oh no, oh no._

"Oh yes," Dictator Eggman confirms the fact I'm trying to convince myself is false. _How can he read my mind?_

"I can read your mind because you're only here in spirit, and my lackey and I are the only ones that can acknowledge your presence," he answers. "Speaking of my lackey, I feel that it's time you meet him."

After an evil laugh, a familiar-looking chinchilla emerges from the shadows behind Eggman. He's tall, dressed in tattered clothes, and has a menacing glare. His sapphire fur is disheveled and somewhat greying. He looks driven with madness.

Yet, regardless of these unfavorable traits, I can still tell that he's my father.

"Dad?" I exclaim. "Mom told me that you were dead!"

"Dead he is not," Eggman denies. "He was sucked here through a ripple in the space-time continuum. I decided to put him to...good use."

"But—but why?"

"After years of research, I learned why you and the flute are so interconnected. It's because—"

"IT'S NO USE!" I hear Silver exclaim. (Never in all my life have I heard something as lame as that.)

My eyes shoot open. I _was _dreaming.

...and my face is wet. Shadow's holding a bucket; the rim is facing the floor, and drops of water are slowly sliding off of the bucket and onto the floor. He still appears to be as serious as ever. "Looks like it _was_ of use, Silver," Sonic remarks. He gives Silver a _You know I was right_ look.

Silver punches Sonic's arm. "Not funny," he growls.

My breathing is heavy. All I can mutter is: "Dream...Eggman...ruler...my dad...possessed...huff...huff..."

Amy brings Silver a warm towel and gives it to him. He puts it on my head and tells me to relax, but I can't. It all seemed too real. I can't relax—not now.

I take this time to look around at my surroundings. I'm back in Tails' workshop—thank God. Right now, I just need a familiar environment. And answers. (But being here is good enough for now, I suppose.) I'm laying on my mattress, and a light blanket is spread over my grimy body.

"What happened?" I ask.

Shadow and Silver took turns explaining the situation. Apparently, after I had passed out, Silver teleported the both of us out of Eggman's headquarters while Shadow defeated Eggman and took the Emerald Flute. They then managed to find a way off the island, and I spent the entire time back rambling on about some gibberish. Quite simply put, that was about it.

Amy adds, "...and Silver here kept freaking out because you wouldn't wake up."

Silver gives her a death stare to tell her to shut up. But I blushed, which made him happy with me, but pissed at Amy.

I'm hoping that this occurrence finally gets Amy off of my back. I mean, I don't like Sonic—at least not in the way she thinks I do. It's kinda obvious that I'm not showing romantic interest in him, and if the concept doesn't smack her in the face by now, then I'm going to have to smack her _across_ her face several times until she finally does.

As for Silver...I don't know how I feel about him. Sure, his voice is annoying, but...I don't know. He just seems so...loyal. Welcoming. Open. Sure, maybe a bit immature, but hey, I'm not the ideal figure of maturity either, so I have no problem with that at all. I need to think this one over a bit more; I've only known him for what feels like a split second.

Tails shouts out from somewhere else in the workshop, "Guys, I think I located another Chaos Emerald!"

Sonic and Shadow run over to the young fox, but Amy and Silver are still here. Amy sighs and apologizes, "Look, I'm sorry for being kinda...intolerant of you since you showed up." Intolerant? That's an understatement. "...Friends?" She extends her hand out to me. Unlike the last time we shook hands, she is actually willing to apologize—which is why I decide to grab her hand and shake it.

"Friends," I agree.

After that, Amy runs off to flirt with Sonic or something. (Just because we're friends now doesn't mean that I don't believe that she's a crazy psycho chick.)

Silver smiles and tells me to feel better. I smile back, and then I realize that I have to tell him about my dream, as he's probably the only one who would understand my predicament. He starts to make his way over to the others when I say, "Hey, Silver."

He turns around. "Yeah?"

"Come here. I need to talk to you about something. It's important."


	13. Back to the Future

I tell Silver about my entire dream: the destruction, the ruin, Eggman being ruler...the part about my dad being hypnotized into being Eggman's slave.

"That can't be possible," Silver denies. "The bodyguard wasn't an adult. He was more of a teenager...like yourself."

I sit up and look the hedgehog in the eyes. "My dad's in trouble. I know it. My mom told me that he died while away on business, but somewhere, deep inside of me, I knew that there was something amiss with that story," I explain. "I need you to take me into the future so I can save him."

"...but the bodyguard isn't him!" he refutes.

I insist once more, "He _is_, Silver." Tears build up in my eyes. "Please. You gotta believe me. I haven't seen my father in years, and now he's in trouble." Sadness begins to cascade from the corners of my eyes. "Please, Silver."

He looks around to make sure that nobody is close enough to hear him. "Alright," he succumbs. "We'll leave at midnight—assuming I can find two Chaos Emeralds, that is."

_Chaos Emeralds?_ I think about Shadow's Chaos Control and realize that there may be a connection between those Emeralds and time travel. "Well, we have one somewhere in here; as for the other one, Shadow has it, but I don't know if he would be willing to give it up, even though the world depends on it."

In a hushed voice, Silver devises a plan: "I'll try to negotiate with Shadow. When everyone's asleep, find the emerald and take it."

I nod my head in agreement. _I'm coming for you, Dad._

**-x-**

It's half past eleven. Everyone's at his or her home, asleep, with the exception of Tails, Silver, and myself. (Silver's here because, well, his home's in the future. Obviously.) He's waiting for me outside right now. I need to find the Chaos Emerald and get moving. My dad's life depends on it.

_Now, if I were Knuckles, where would I hide the Chaos Emerald_?

I'm not convinced that Knuckles is very bright, so...

I look at a lamp in the corner of the room. _Maybe, just maybe..._

I approach the lamp and lift the cream-colored blind off of it. Underneath—believe it or not—is the blue Chaos Emerald. _Okay, so maybe he's moderately bright..._

I snatch it and scurry out of the room, tripping somewhere along the way. After my body thuds onto the ground, I quickly push myself up and continue running out. _Hopefully Tails didn't hear that_.

When I get outside, I see Silver waiting impatiently. He's got the green Chaos Emerald. "If we're going to go, now's the time to do it," he points out.

I ask, "Whatever happened to midnight?"

"Look, the sooner we get in, the sooner we get out, alright? I escaped in attempts of saving the past. I never planned on going back—at least, not until everything got fixed."

My eyes stare at the Chaos Emerald; then, I ask: "So, how do we work these things?"

"Follow my lead." With his bare hands, Silver lifts the emerald into the air; he expects me to do the same thing, so I follow in his example. The two Emeralds light up, and a portal of some kind appears in front of us. "Cool," I say with an awe-stricken voice.

Silver puts his arm down, and I do the same. His left hand is empty; he extends his arm out to me so we can go through together. I willingly grab it. We look at each other. "Ready?" he asks me. I nod, and he goes, "Three, two..."

I hear Tails shout at us, "Where are you guys going?"

"...one! Jump now!" Silver concludes.

Together, we jump through the portal—not daring to look back, and not prepared for the road ahead.

**-x-**

"Oof!" I grunt as the portal spits the both of us onto hard concrete. _Why couldn't the portal have spit us onto a pile of pillows or something?_

Silver is standing before me, so he helps me get back onto my feet. "Thanks," I say. "Now, take me to Eggman. I need to talk to him."

"I'm not exactly sure where his headquarters is," Silver admits, "and it's kinda risky. Just being here now could be bad for us. We should go back."

"Hmph," I disagree. "Nonsense. No toll is too great to give up on the ones you love." I stuff my Chaos Emerald into my messenger bag. "Gimme yours."

Silver reluctantly hands his Chaos Emerald over, and I put it in my bag.

I begin to walk towards the metropolis in front of me—a dark, decrepit, burning wasteland. "So," I muse, "this is the future?"

"Unfortunately, yes," Silver confirms. "We could be making it worse by being here, though. We should go back."

"No," I disagree. "Like I said: no toll is too great to give up on the ones you l—"

"But the slave isn't your father!"

"Well, how do you know?"

"Because she's—"

Time must move much quicker in this period, since we're in front of the building in a matter of seconds. "This is it," I announce. "This is the building that I saw in my dream."

"We've been expecting you," two robotic voices chime simultaneously. Silver and I turn around and see what appears to be two ancient robots similar to Eggman's. They push us into the building, and we end up on the floor within seconds. Silver tries to break the door open with his mind, but it's not working for some reason. He tries pushing the door open, but the robots are blocking it.

"Shit," I growl.

"My little Chincha," a masculine voice scolds me, "how many times have I told you not to swear?"

_Chincha. Only one person's ever called me that._

"D—Dad?" I stammer in disbelief.


	14. No Aquí

_**A/N**—Just a little warning for you all: there's some Spanish/Spanglish in this chapter. If you're wondering why, it's because chinchillas are native to the Andes—which is a predominately Spanish-speaking region. For that reason, I decided that it'd be cool if Voca had a Hispanic background. I apologize (lo siento) to all of the people who are reading this and don't even know how to speak even a little Spanish._

_Please have Google Translate ready. You've been warned._

* * *

><p>"Hello, my Chincha," says my dad as he approaches me. "<em>¿Comó estás, mi hija?<em>"

Although my dad's words remind me of when I was a little girl, I have the feeling that my real dad isn't there emotionally and mentally. He's got a wicked smile, disheveled fur, and an ominous purple aura.

"_Papá_, Eggman did this to you, didn't he?" I hypothesize as I choke on every word. Tears are cascading down my face. "Didn't he?"

"Did what? I found the Emerald Flute and invented this future myself."

I could not believe what my father was saying. _How could such a gentle soul become so wicked?_

"Because, _mi hija_, I wished for a world where we could take control. I was tired of being sent away to fight in war. I sought vengeance. That's what brought about my desire to build this future for us—and we've been very happy here so far."

"_We've_? Do you mean _Mamá _is here, too?"

"_No. Es muchos mejor._"

My father belts out an evil cackle, and out from the shadows behind him emerges a familiar face. He's right: it's not my mom (thank God), and it's not a close family member or family friend. It's worse than any of them combined.

I'm staring down my own doppelgänger—but she's not exactly me. She's corrupted, and I can tell by the grimace on her face. Like with my father, a dark aura is emanating from her body. Can I even call her a "her"? Should I be referring to her as "myself"? No. I can't—because that's not the real me I see in front of me. It's a sick and twisted contortion of myself. It's not even a "she"—it's a demon. But I guess, for contextual purposes, I'll have to refer to it as a "she."

"_Un diablo_," I mutter. "_Papá_,_ _¿_qué paso?_"

Another evil chuckle. "__¿Q_ué paso? _The best thing that's ever happened to me, that's what. And, now that you're here with me, we can finally take full control of this world. We'll be unstoppable. So, join us—well, join me, that is. Escape that humdrum life of yours. Become one with my stand-in you. We could be a family again."

This is totally unlike _Papá_. Whatever happened to my father?

_Papá _extends his hand out to me, but I don't want to accept it. I'd rather be fatherless at this point. "Never," I refuse. "_Tú corazón es sucio._"

"Alright then," he understands halfheartedly. "You give me no choice. _Hija_, sieze Voca and her friend."

Right as my doppelgänger is about to attack, I reach into my bag, grab one of the Chaos Emeralds, and run over to Silver. Once I'm next to him, I grab his arm and pray silently, _Please work._

"CHAOS CONTROL!" I yell. I can feel the emerald's power coursing throughout my body as it teleports the both of us to a distant location.

**-x-**

Silver and I arrive in a meadow on the outskirts of the futuristic Station Square. It, unlike the city, is unaffected and is the quintessence of life. If I had been consumed by my doppelgänger earlier, then this field might've been obliterated by this point. If it wasn't for Chaos Control...

...wait a minute. "How did I even do that?" I ask myself aloud. I assumed that was Shadow's thing, but I suppose that I was wrong.

"Your guess is as good as mine," Silver answers. "I'm surprised you even know what Chaos Control is."

"Mhm." I'm kinda distracted now. I mean, my father's now consumed by some evil force. I, on the other hand, am consumed with sadness right now. I see my father—who I assumed was dead—for the first time in about two or three years, and I discover that he's literally taken a turn for the worst. It was a bittersweet reuinion.

I must be zoning out or something, because I'm totally lost in my thoughts and concerns at the moment to focus on what's going on around me. "Voca," Silver asks, "are you okay?"

What do I say? _Yeah. I'm totally fine. _Papá_'s been taken over by demons or something. I have every reason to be fine. Woo._

But that's the thing; I don't say anything and fall to my knees instead. I bend over and throw my head into my arms, which are cupped so my head could gently rest on them while I sob indefinitely. "_Papá...__" _is all I can manage to say. "_Mi papá es no aquí. _¿Dónde está __usted__, Papá?_"_

I don't think that Silver understands my Spanish, but I do know that he understands my suffering. He bends down and rubs my back with his right hand. "It's okay," Silver says in attempts of consoling me. "We'll figure this out. I promise."

"_¿__Es el verdad?_" I ask. "Is that the truth?" He nods his head, and I thank him with, "_Gracias, mi amigo_. It's nice to know that I have a shoulder to lean on."

He smiles and suggests, "We should go back. It's not safe here now, and this world could turn into ruins at any second."

Silver helps me back on my feet, and I hand him the Chaos Emerald that I am holding. I pull the other one from my bag, and we use them to create a portal back home.

Once more, we jump through the portal—not daring to look back, and not anticipating the treacherous road that we both know is ahead.


	15. Verdades y Mientras

It's daybreak when Silver and I return to my time period. I'm not exactly sure where we are, but I think we're somewhere in Mystic Ruin—at least, I hope so.

Together, the two of us begin to try to find our way back to Tails' workshop. As we walk, I tell Silver, "_Papá _and I were really close. We used to play tag together in the meadow near our house. At night, before I went to bed, he would always tell me stories about this great ancient chinchilla tribe. The leaders of the tribe had special abilities; some were able to control elements, others were able to read minds, others had powers like yours, et cetera. The tribe interacted diplomatically with the surrounding animal tribes. He never filled me in with any examples of discord, but he planned on telling me the night that he supposedly died. The ironic part about that is that, like my father, the tribe mysteriously disappeared one day. I wonder what happened to them."

"Maybe it was the Emerald Flute," Silver suggests.

I sigh. "Maybe." I then add, "I never really began swearing so much until after my father 'died.' I mean, I love my mother dearly, but without _Papá_, I felt like I had a gaping hole in my heart."

The two of us continue walking. Out of the blue, Silver asks, "What was your father like before he turned into—you know."

I manage to say, "He was...kind. Charitable. Never turned down a challenge. Always very determined. Erudite. Somewhat secretive."

"Secretive?"

"I remember _Mamá _and _Papá_ screaming at each other about something—way back when I was a child. After the argument, _Papá_ came to my room to check on me. After I had told him that I was fine, I asked him why he was arguing with _Mamá_. He said that it was nothing, and that it was over something petty. I doubt that's the truth—especially now that I've discovered that he never really died." The thought of my father makes me shed a tear. Silver embraces me with a hug, which I appreciate greatly.

"We'll figure this out," he promises. "We'll free your father's soul. I bet you that his real character is still there; we just need to unlock it first."

"Thanks, Silver," I tell him sincerely.

**-x-**

"Hey, guys," I hear Tails point out from nearby, "I found Voca and Silver!"

Tails approaches us, followed by Sonic, Knuckles, and Amy. "What happened to Shadow?" I ask.

Sonic shrugs. "That guy's never around for long. He just kinda...left. Not much of a people person, really."

Without hesitation, Tails quickly asks, "What happened to you guys? You disappeared through some portal! And where are the Chaos Emeralds?"

Silver and I look at each other. Both of us must be wondering, _What the hell do we tell them? Should we tell them what happened, or just keep it a secret?_

Fumbling on his words a bit, Silver lies, "We—we went to find more Chaos Emeralds. We used the ones we have found already to—to locate the other ones."

"But what about the portal?" Tails asks.

Knuckles looks shocked. "Wait," he interrupts, "what portal?"

_God, you're slow, _I think.

"P—portal?" I stammer. "I have no idea what you're talking about. You—you—you must've been seeing something. Or dreaming. Yeah! Dreaming." _Please believe us. Please believe us._

"Yeah, there was...no portal...at all...period..." Silver adds.

Before the others can question us any more, my stomach growls, followed by Silver's, Sonic's, Amy's, Knuckles', and Tails', respectively. _Perfect timing_. "Can we go back and eat?" I groan. "I'm _staaaarving_."

Tails' stomach growls once more. "Guess we all were so busy looking for you two that we forgot to eat breakfast," he admits.

Amy suggests, "How about we run into town for some breakfast?" _Probably the most normal thing she's said since I met her._

Everyone seems to agree, and our group heads towards the train station.

**-x-**

"So, did you two find any Chaos Emeralds?" Tails asks Silver and I.

We're all sitting at a counter in a Station Square diner. On my left is Tails, and on my right is Silver (who is sitting at the end of the row of bolted-down, spinning seats. Beside Tails is Sonic, and beside Sonic is Knuckles, whose probably there to keep Amy from kissing Sonic the whole time or something. (God, if that ever happened, I'd tape it and put it on YouTube. Can somebody say "viral video"?) There are a bunch of humans around; I wonder if they're either freaked out or intrigued by the fact that there's a line of animals eating breakfast in a public place. I still haven't gotten used to seeing so many humans in one place. There are only a few in my hometown.

I think Silver and I have tacitly agreed to attempt to make our lies more believable. Although we have no idea what our facial expressions are saying, I lie in a somewhat downcast voice, "No. We didn't."

Amy sticks her head out so that we can see her, then taunts me with, "Maybe they used the Chaos Emerald thing as an excuse to run off into the woods and make out or something."

I bear my teeth and want to go over there and beat the shit out of her for saying that, but right as I'm about to do so, Silver puts his hand on my shoulder, and I relax. Silver's right: we shouldn't fight (at least, not here where there are witnesses). However, Amy probably has noticed that Silver and I are lying.

Why do I have the feeling that she's going to try to blackmail us or something?


	16. A Truce

We return back to Tails' workshop at about noon-ish. (We would've been back sooner if it weren't for Amy's damn shopping habit.) Like we did yesterday, we've all congregated in a circle in the middle of the main room.

"What's our game plan this time?" I ask, eager to return to hunting down Chaos Emeralds.

"Well," Knuckles begins to suggest, "I was thinking—"

Amy rudely interrupts, "—MAYBE WE SHOULD GO IN GROUPS OF TWO!"

_Then I can go with Silver. Sounds good to—_

"I'll go with Voca," Amy volunteers with that big mouth of hers. _Damn you_, is my initial thought. Then, I wonder, _Wait, what is that chick up to?_

"I'll go with Sonic," Tails says.

Sonic gives him a thumbs up and agrees with, "Sounds good to me. That leaves Knuckles and Silver."

Silver and Knuckles look at each other. Knuckles doesn't look thrilled, but he's not incredibly pissed about his pairing. Silver doesn't seem to know what to make of the situation. "Whatever," Knuckles agrees. Under his breath, I hear the echidna say, "It's much better than being stuck with Amy, I guess."

Couldn't have said it better myself. But I'm stuck with her, so I can't even say it at all.

**-x-**

Amy and I are strolling down the streets of Station Square when she asks me, "So, where'd you find Silver?"

"In the forest," I explain, "where Eggman's base is located. I fell down a deep hole, and he heard me swearing, so he helped me out."

Without even looking at me, she speculates, "It's interesting how Silver just kinda showed up all of a sudden. He only seems to show up—" She turns her head towards me and gives me a suspicious look. "—when the world's in danger."

"Well, uh, I guess it's got to do with the Emerald Flute or—"

"You never went looking for Chaos Emeralds, did you?"

"Wait, what?"

"I could tell by your expressions at the diner before. If there's one thing I'm good at, it's pointing out a liar._"_

"Shit," I grumble. "I knew it."

"So, what did you guys _really_ do last night? I'm _dying _to know."

I sigh. "Fine," I tell her, "but you can't tell _anyone_. Legit, _anyone._" We pass by an ice cream parlor, and Amy stops. "What?" I ask.

"It's going to take a vanilla soft serve to convince me to do that," she tells me.

**-x-**

We're sitting on a bench next to the ice cream parlor. She's licking her vanilla soft serve cone, and I'm drinking a soda. (I'm not much of an ice cream person, to be honest.) "Alright," I say, "I got you ice cream. Now do you promise to—"

She flicks her right wrist up and down and agrees, "Yeah, sure. Start with the story telling already."

I explain everything that had happened last night—the portal, the future, my father...everything. It's not like I had a choice; she knew I was lying anyhow. "So you two _weren't_ making out," she realizes. _No shit, Sherlock._ "Awh. I would've loved to hear some gooey, romantic love story. I like hearing other peoples' stories because I don't have a love story of my own." She sighs. _Right. Because Sonic knows well enough that Amy's crazy. But still...I sympathize with her._

What am I supposed to say back to her? _"Woman, you're a nut. Take a chill pill, go to a mental hospital—I don't know! Do something about your messed-up mind before you do something about your heart!"_ I may have a short temper, but I have at least _some_ self-control.

I decide to tell her, "Well...you're kinda...overbearing."

"_Overbearing_?" she exclaims.

"Well, come on," I explain. "You practically _gush_ over Sonic! You get pissed at any girl that even glances at him. You don't like competition. At all. You expect to have him all for yourself."

"I do not!"

"You tried to kill me with your hammer when I first met you, and you hated me until Shadow and Silver saved me from Eggman's base."

"Oh...right. Maybe I _do_ need to calm down...just a little."

"Like the meme says: 'Keep calm and carry on.' It'll work out someday, Amy. You just need to give it time."

She smiles and agrees, "You're right!"

A sigh. _Thank God._

"I can use my free time to help the relationship between you and Silver flourish!"

I slap my face with my right palm. _Dear God. What monster have I created?_ "No," I reject. "You really don't. There's nothing there right now, and—"

"Emphasis on _right now_—"

"OH, WOULD YOU JUST SHUT UP ALREADY? Right now, the focus is on saving my dad and the world. Why don't you get that? I thought I explained—"

She flicks her wrist in the same manner as earlier. "Yeah, yeah. I heard you. This kind of stuff happens all the time. We collect the Chaos Emeralds, give them to Sonic (and maybe Silver and Shadow, too—but Shadow disappeared again, and I have no idea if Silver can use them like Sonic can), Sonic defeats the evil, and everything goes back to normal. Piece of cake."

"But what if it's not that easy?"

"Look, Voca, it _always_ works out in the end. Just take some time to live a little. Besides, I think Silver likes you."

I sigh and agree, "Fine. But you can't play matchmaker. Just because you and Sonic isn't working out doesn't mean you can try to butt into a relationship."

"Oh, alright." She doesn't sound too thrilled, but who cares? At least she's not up my ass right now, and it'll give Sonic some relaxation time of his own. "Let's forget looking for the Chaos Emeralds right now. Let's go do some shopping or something!"

"Oh no. Shopping's not my thing. If we're getting sidetracked, then we're doing something that I want."

Amy's ears sorta droop down to the sides a little. She looks a bit discouraged. "Fine. What do you want to—"

Out of nowhere, a flyer slaps Amy in the face. "AGH!" she shrieks.

I grab the flyer before it can fly away, and I read it. It says in a large, bold serif font: _CARNIVAL! ENDS TODAY! RIDES! GAMES! FOOD! EXCITEMENT!_

"I say we do this," I suggest. I love carnivals—not really for the rides, but for the games. I was never really fantastic at them, but I always found them to be exhilarating.

Amy agrees—and without complaining, too. Guess this couldn't have worked out better.


	17. Surprising Prize

**A/N**—I found the need to put a _Despicable Me_ reference in here. :3

* * *

><p>"Wow!" I cheer at the sight of the jubilant festival. "Look at this! I've never seen a carnival this grandiose before!"<p>

It's gigantic—stretching out over an entire boardwalk. There's a huge roller coaster, a Ferris wheel that's almost as tall as some of the shorter skyscrapers in the city, some minor rides, and game booths. Lots and lots of game booths, waiting for me to play. I check my bag, and there's a twenty staring me in the face—not to mention the Chaos Emeralds. I guess I forgot to return them. I pull the twenty out, stuff it in my pocket, and quickly shut the bag before Amy sees the Emeralds.

Amy explains, "It comes here every year. What, you've never seen it before?"

"I'm a foreigner," I tell her. "I came here from another city. It's a lot simpler at home. And a lot more boring, too. The carnivals we have are not _nearly_ as gigantic as this one._ ¡Qué divertidas!_"

"No way!" Amy exclaims. "You speak Spanish?"

"_U__n poquito_," I confirm, "_pero sí_. I used to speak it at home—before my father disappeared, that is."

"Wow! You must know a lot of it, then!"

I roll my eyes. _Moron._

"Can you teach me some Spanish? I know you told me to keep my love for Sonic down a few notches, but maybe Spanish could make him finally fall for me!" She puts her hands together and presses them against one side of her face. Her left leg pops up, and there's a twinkle in her eyes.

Creepy stuff, man.

I sigh. "I suppose. Maybe another time."

"Alright!" Amy looks thrilled. I don't know why, though. I figured that someone who would want to seduce someone with language would want to learn something more romantic, like French_, _but..._yo no sé_.

"—but you've got to pay for the games."

She wags her finger disapprovingly. "No way! Here's a proposition for you: you teach me Spanish, and I keep your secret."

_I knew it. Blackmail._ However, I guess I've gotta give her credit for her moxie. Didn't know she has it in her, to be honest. "You know, I think you and I are a lot more alike than you think," I speculate. We shake on it, and I guess our friendship sorta begins there. Who knew blackmail could bring people together?

**-x-**

We're standing in front of a "knock down the bottles" booth, and Amy's looking at all of the prizes. Me? I really don't give a crap about the prizes. I play for the joy of winning. I guess I'll give Amy my prize if I win. None of these prizes seem useful anyhow. They're all stuffed animals. Ew.

"How much for a play?" I ask.

The man running the booth, who is dressed in a candy cane-color-striped vest, a matching hat, and white pants, answers, "Three throws, five dollars."

"Dude, that's crazy," I point out. "These stuffed animals are in _no way_ worth five bucks. I'd be lucky if any of these were worth a measly quarter."

"I like that huge one up there!" Amy exclaims. "You're playing this game."

My jaw drops. "Uh, _excuse me?"_

"If you want me to keep your seeeecreeettt~" she trills.

I slam my head into the counter of the booth. "Damn," I grunt.

The booth owner gives me a sympathetic look. "Blackmail?" he whispers to me.

I nod. "Yeah."

"Tell you what—pay me the five dollars, and if you knock over nine out of ten of these bottles in one shot, you get the huge stuffed animal. It'll save you ten bucks or more. Sound good?"

A sigh. "Fine." I slap the twenty down on the counter, and he picks up the bill and puts it up to the sunlight to make sure it's not a counterfeit. "I expect to see fifteen dollars in change here before I begin. I don't want no sleazy tricks or—"

He puts down the change—a five and a ten—and smiles. "Pleasure doing business with you," he says.

The man puts one single ball down on the table. I pick it up and begin to warm up my arm. When I think I'm ready, I get ready, aim, and throw. The ball hits the center of the stack of silver bottles. _Dammit. Threw it too high_.

But there's still hope. The stacks that are at a higher elevation begin to collapse. Six are down. Bottle number seven falls over. Then number eight.

But not number nine, nor number ten.

"_BAKA!"_ I cry out in rage. The man laughs at my misfortune, and I want to strangle him for that. "You think that's so funny?" I growl.

All of a sudden, bottle number nine begins to wobble, and it eventually falls over. Not sure what just happened, but at least my five bucks was not wasted in vain.

"But—" the man asks, flabbergasted. "—but...how?"

"I'll take that gigantic stuffed animal now, thank you." The man unwillingly hands over the toy: a magenta-colored teddy bear with a gigantic white bow. _God, Amy is such a kid_.

Before I can even turn around, Amy snatches it from me. "No way!" she cheers. "Thanks, Voca. It's so fluffy!" The pink hedgehog hugs the bear. "Let's go rock at some other games!"

_Great. Let's go waste some more of Voca's money, shall we?_

**-x-**

We end up at one of those Test Your Strength booths, and Amy has a sinister grin on her face. "Perfect," she says with a confident smirk.

Oh no. Please don't tell me she's gonna go all hammer crazy on this one.

I look at the prizes, and I see that one of them is a purple Chaos Emerald. "Amy, look!" I exclaim as I gesture towards the prize, which is on the top shelf.

Her eyes light up. "I was going for the giant fish stuffed animal, but a Chaos Emerald sounds good to me. Give me five."

Amy holds her hand out, and, like the smart ass I am, I slap it. She gives me an angry grimace. "Do you want to win this Chaos Emerald or not?" she asks through her teeth.

I pull a five dollar bill from my pocket and hand it to her. She gives it to the man, who hands her a hammer in return. She refuses it and tells him, "I've got this one, mister."

Out of nowhere comes her Piko-Piko hammer. With a burning determination, she slams down on the weighted plate with all of the force inside her surprisingly-strong, yet petite body. The metal thingie (I don't know what it's called, alright?) shoots up to the bell like a rocket. As the bell chimes, the man blankly stares at the spectacle before him. "But—" he stutters. "—but...but...but—"

"I'll take the purple gemstone on the top shelf," she tells him, "thank you very much."

Without question, the man grabs the prize for her and hands it over. She gives it a good look, then turns to me and smiles. She gives me a thumbs up to confirm that it's a Chaos Emerald, and I give her a thumbs up in return.

She joins me and hands over the Chaos Emerald, which I stuff in my bag. We begin to walk away from the game. "We should play some more games," she suggests.

I stop in my tracks. "Woah, woah, woah," I disagree. "Let's not waste my money, alright. This ten's all I have left. We're only going to use it if we find another Chaos Emerald."

"I can blackmail you!~" she trills.

"Fine," I remark, "but when you're hungry later, don't come crying to me for the money I won't have on hand. You'll have to starve."

She whistles. "You're good," she praises me.

I fold my arms. "You're not the only one good at threatening people."

"Fine. We won't play any more games." She looks up at the sky and notices the eventide. "Wow, is today almost over already? That was fast. Maybe we should head back anyhow."

I nod with agreement, and we head back to Tails' Workshop.


	18. Las Estrellas

"Wow!" Sonic exclaims. "Who knew that the third Chaos Emerald would be at a carnival?

"The thought of a carnival brings back memories of one of my more recent adventures. Haha, Tails, don't you remember that intergalactic theme park that Eggman built?"

Tails laughs. "Good times," he reminisces.

I have no idea what the two friends are talking about, but I smile. It's nice to see two seemingly different people get along so well.

"I think the more incredible thing is the fact that Voca and Amy didn't kill each other today," Knuckles remarks. He laughs, and I give him a look.

"Mind you not, we're actually friends now," I explain.

He laughs again. "Didn't see that one coming."

I raise an eyebrow. "So," I ask Knuckles, how did you and Silver do?"

Knuckles folds his arms and turns his back to me. "Fine," he grumbles.

Silver yells at him, "Fine? You kept getting in my way!"

"You were moving too fast," he bites back. "If anyone knows where a Chaos Emerald might be, then it would be the one who protects them. You need to take time to stop and—"

"We're on a deadline, Knuckles!" Silver reminds him.

This spat turns into a fiery battle. I fold my arms and shut my eyes. A sigh. "Of course, when Amy and I stop fighting, two other people _start_ fighting," I mutter in complaint. "Can't anyone get along here?"

Amy explains, "Knuckles seems to pick a fight with everyone."

I chuckle, remembering the first time that I encountered Knuckles. "Don't I know it..."

The fight seems to go on for another ten minutes. By now, I'm kinda pissed. I'm tired, this place is a mess, and I don't want to spend three hours helping Tails clean up. My eye twitches with frustration. I compulsively scream, "Could you guys just shut the hell up already and move on?"

Knuckles and Silver are lifted into the air and are broken up by two beams of energy. Tails turns around and notices something. "The Emerald Flute!" he exclaims as he looks at the instrument, which is on a workbench. "It's glowing!"

Oddly enough, he's right—the Flute is glowing in a green color, and the beams of energy that are holding Knuckles and Silver up are emanating from it. I suddenly look down at my necklace, and the gem in the center is glowing as well. "Woah," I whisper. "Should I be concerned or amazed?"

Before anyone else could notice my necklace, it stops glowing, and Knuckles and Silver drop to the ground. "What just happened?" Knuckles wonders as he rubs his head.

"My thoughts exactly," I say.

Silver looks at me, and I look back at him. I mouth to him, "Later."

**-x-**

Silver and I meet outside after everyone's either at home or asleep. We're laying atop a grassy hill, staring up at the cosmos above us. There aren't many trees around, so we have a clear view of the sky. It's chilly out, but other than that, it's such a wonderful night.

"So," the hedgehog asks me, "what happened earlier?"

I explain, "My necklace—it just started...glowing. Right after I told you and Knuckles to stop fighting. The weird thing is that the Emerald Flute started glowing as well. Perhaps they're connected or something."

"Who knows?" he wonders.

I take in a few deep breaths. "My father gave me this necklace right before he left," I tell Silver. "He told me that it was meant for me—that it was passed through our family for generations. He said that as long as I am in possession of it, I'll always be safe.

"Tell me: How did you know that the Chaos Emeralds could make a portal like that? Is that a kind of Chaos Control or something?"

He admits, "I'm not sure. It felt instinctive—like I've done it before. The only thing is that I never _did_ use it in the past. I got here through a wormhole that I found back in my time. Some occur through nature, believe it or not.

"Now, you tell me: How were you able to use Chaos Control last night?"

I blink a few times. I didn't see that question coming, and I have no idea how to answer it. "Uh," I say, "I honestly don't know. I saw Shadow do it when he saved me from Eggman's base the first time, and something in the back of my subconscious kept nagging me to perform Chaos Control...so I did."

"How interesting," Silver muses.

We resume to focusing on the sky. "_Las estrellas son muy bonita_," I say, forgetting that Silver doesn't speak Spanish.

"Hm?" he asks, turning his head to me as he does.

"I said 'the stars are very pretty,'" I translate for him, turning my head to him as well.

He smiles and lets out a chuckle. "What?" I ask.

"...Nothing. That's pretty cool what you just did there."

"What? Translating what I said for you?"

"No. Speaking in Spanish."

I blush. "Oh, it's nothing. I used to speak it in bits and pieces back home, but I've since gone off on my own for a bit. That's how I ended up here."

"At Tails' workshop?"

"No, Station Square. To think that my life could be normal if I just stayed home." I sigh. As boring as life at home was, I sure as hell miss it. It wasn't as complex...or stressful.

"You don't know that," Silver disagrees. And he's right—if I stayed home, this disaster still could've happened, except differently. The future would still be screwed. The only difference between what could've happened and what's actually happening is that I am able to stop it.

But I can't do it without help. I guess even if I did stay home, and even if I _could_ do something about the impending crisis if I did, I wouldn't have been able to do it without Sonic and his friends—without Silver.

I smile. "I can't disagree with that logic," I tell him.

We laugh, and a shooting star dashes across the sky. "Ooh! Make a wish!" I exclaim.

I wish that this will all be over soon. I ask Silver, "What did you wish for?"

He responds, "I'm not telling you. I thought that telling someone your wish is supposed to annul your wish."

I gasp. "You're right. It's a good thing that I didn't tell you mine yet, then."

"Wouldn't _that_ be a tragedy?"

We both laugh, reminding ourselves that superstitions are ridiculous. "So, are you going to tell me or not?" I ask.

He grins and replies, "I'm still not telling you."

"Fine, I'll tell you mine. I wished that this whole fiasco will end soon. I just want to finally feel at ease for once—though I'm not saying that I'm not at ease now. It's just—"

"No, I get it," Silver understands. "Let's just relax now before we get thrown into some other adventure tomorrow."

I nod in agreement. _Jeez, Silver's pretty philosophical, isn't he?_

To think that the guy with the annoying voice would become such a close friend to me. I think that I should've wished that we'll still end up together after all of this is over. I guess I just wasted a wish, didn't I? However, maybe it might not have been a waste. If the madness ends sooner, then I can finally bond with Silver. However, the question remains: Will we both survive to see that day? I have a sinking feeling that something will happen between now and then—like someone's going to get hurt, possessed, I don't know. Maybe that's me just being hypersensitive or something.

Back to what Silver just said. I _do_ need to relax for this moment now. If my hunches are right, then I better seize the day before it's too late. You know what, it's just like what happened with Amy and I before. We took a break and enjoyed ourselves, and we still got stuff done. Perhaps Amy was trying to tell me to enjoy the time I have. Maybe she's on the same page as me. Who knows?

Now, to get a little off topic. I don't seem swear as much when I'm with Silver. Maybe it's because he's filling the hole in my heart caused by my father's disappearance. I feel...happier around him. Not as frustrated. It's like a heavy weight has been lifted off of my chest or something. It's...kinda nice, to be honest.

On second thought, maybe I _did_ waste my wish.

Silver snaps me out of my thought-filled daze. "So, what was your hometown like?" he asks me.

I spend the rest of the night telling him about Pueblo Village—the place where I grew up. The entire time, a wave of nostalgia sweeps over me. But I don't cry. I don't show concern for my father. Again, Silver's presence seems to be easing my soul—and I'm extremely grateful for that.


	19. Expect the Unexpected

Today, we decide to break up into groups again—except this time, I'm stuck with Knuckles. _Great. What does _he _want?_

We go off to the far end of the room to discuss our game plan. "We're gonna scope out Mystic Ruin today," he informs me.

I sigh. "Don't _I _get to choose where we look for once?"

"No," he denies. "These Emeralds are _my_ responsibility, and it's _my_ job to make sure they're safe."

"As I said when I first met you," I remind him, "guess we're not too good at our job, are we?"

He wants to start another fight with me—I can see it in his eyes—but he manages to control himself this time. _Something's up_, I note.

Instead, Knuckles says impatiently, "Let's just go already."

**-x-**

As we're walking through Mystic Ruin, I ask Knuckles, "Alright, so what's up?"

He turns around and glances at me. His facial expression indicates some sort of pseudo-confusion. "What are you talking about?"

"Look, it's obvious: we're not exactly...fond of each other."

"So?"

"So? Why would you choose _me_—out of everyone in our group—to help you search for Chaos Emeralds?"

A puff of hot air rushes out of his nose. "Fine. I'll tell you," he agrees, yet rather unwillingly. "Ever since I met you, I've been thinking a lot about this Emerald Flute. At first, I kept asking myself what the item is; I've heard of it before, yet I couldn't remember the specifics behind its history. Then the facts sunk in a little more, and things began to become lucid to me when Tails showed me the book you two found at Station Square's library.

"And then it hit me."

I tease, "What? Silver's fist yesterday?"

"NOT THAT!" he bellows. "I began to recall something about the Master Emerald."

"_Everything_ seems to go back to the Master Emerald, doesn't it?"

"In this case," he insists, trying not to yell at me, "yeah, it does. Now shut up and listen to me already."

"Hmph." I fold my arms and listen to whatever the hell he has to say.

"Hundreds of years ago, there were two neighboring tribes. One tribe consisted entirely of echidnas—my ancestors. The other tribe consisted of chinchillas. They had both claimed to have rights over the Master Emerald, and a war broke out as a result. The two parties fought recklessly for the Emerald. Years later, a mystic from the chinchilla tribe was fed up with the fighting. His home was destroyed, and he saw that as the final straw, so he created the Emerald Flute to destroy the village of the echidna tribe. He succeeded in destroying the tribe's village and some of its people, but he ended up destroying most of his tribe—including himself—in the process. The echidnas took the Master Emerald and the Chaos Emeralds for safe keeping, then relocated to where we are now—the place currently known as Mystic Ruin."

"But wait, what about the Emerald Flute?" I ask.

Knuckles adds, "The echidnas didn't care. Without the Emeralds, the Flute is useless. They had the Chaos Emeralds, and that was that. I'm assuming that the remaining chinchillas took it for themselves."

"That's probably how _Papá_ got it..." I mutter.

"Wait, what?" Knuckles asks, somewhat thrown off guard. "You say something?"

I stammer, "No, no! N-nothing at all! Let's just...just keep looking, shall we?"

He narrows his eyes, then turns around. "Whatever. Before we go back to looking, I suppose I should warn you about something. The book said that 'only by a descendant of the tribe that used to protect the Master Emerald' can reverse the effects of the Flute in its strongest form. I may guard the Master Emerald now, but I highly doubt those words apply to me. You should keep that in mind."

Without even turning around, Knuckles begins to walk off into the woods. "Wait!" I shout. "What's _that_ even supposed to mean?"

"You figure it out!" he yells back as he continues walking. I catch up with him, and we begin our search for the remaining four Chaos Emeralds.

**-x-**

Long story short, Knuckles and I haven't found anything. "Ugh," Knuckles groans, "this is hopeless!" He slams one of his fists against a tree, and he doesn't seem to be in pain as a result. I cringe at the sight of his fist against the tree. _I don't care if that didn't hurt you. It still looks painful._

"I wonder what time it is," I think out loud. I scurry up a tree and peer at the sky above. It's most likely about five, considering that the sky is slightly tinted pink.

As I'm about to climb back down the tree, I see something sparkle from one of the higher branches. I rummage through the leaves and twigs to find none other than a Chaos Emerald. It closely resembles a diamond. "Hey, Knuckles!" I call from the treetop. "I found one! A Chaos Emerald!"

"Well, what are you doing up there?" he shouts back. "Bring it down already!"

I throw the Emerald in my bag—where it sits with the other Emeralds (I hope everyone knows that I still have them on my person)—and rush down the tree. When my feet are safely and firmly planted on the ground, I pull the gem out of my bag and hand it to him. "Now," I say with a hint of sarcasm, "what's hopeless again?"

"Would you just shut up already?" he bites back.

I chuckle. Then, we head back to Tails' workshop with our findings.


	20. The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow

I dump the contents of my bag onto a table in Tails' workshop. "Green, blue, purple, and now white," I point out. "Three more to go."

"Wait! I've got another!" calls out Amy as she runs into the room. She's holding up a turquoise-colored Chaos Emerald, and she's waving it around as she sprints in. When she reaches the table, she puts the Emerald down next to the other four.

"Make that two," I say, taking the new addition into account.

Silver trudges in a few moments later. "Man," he says, panting in between words, "you run...faster than...I thought."

Knuckles finds this humorous, probably based off of their predicament the day prior, so he chuckles a bit under his breath.

"So wait," Amy wonders, "where are Sonic and Tails?"

Right on cue, the inseparable duo bolts into the room. "Someone call us?" Sonic asks with an energetic voice. Unlike Silver, he's not panting or anything. I don't know how someone can run as fast as Sonic and not need to take a breather, but it's pretty cool, to be honest.

"Sonic!" Amy cheers. I give her a subtle glare to remind her of what we had talked about yesterday, and she indicates her understanding with a deep breath. She seems much calmer now. Sonic, on the other hand, seems to have a "what the hell just happened?" look on his face.

"Did you guys find anything?" I inquire.

Tails shakes his head left and right. "Nope," he admits. "At least you guys all found some more! That brings us so much closer to gathering them together."

Knuckles points out, "We'll have to make sure that we keep the Emerald Flute especially far from the Chaos Emeralds. We don't want a repeat performance of yesterday, now do we?"

I agree, "He's right. Maybe I should hold onto the flute, and Knuckles should hide the Chaos Emeralds like we intended to in the first place. Without the Chaos Emeralds, the Emerald Flute is just an instrument. Right?"

"I guess it doesn't sound like a bad idea," Tails acknowledges.

But Knuckles thinks otherwise. "The only thing is that if you find a Chaos Emerald, then the Flute could go off at any second."

I pout. "Oh. Right."

"I could always hide it here," Tails offers. "I think I have an empty tool box lying around somewhere. If I hide it strategically, then nobody would even expect it to be there."

We all decide that Tails' solution is the most viable option. The fox finds the tool box and puts the Emerald Flute inside of hit. After he closes it shut, he pulls a key out of nowhere and locks it. (I still don't understand how Tails and his friends can just pull items out of nowhere. Do they have pockets hidden inside their fur or something? Even if they did, where the hell does Amy store that big-ass hammer of hers?)

Knuckles leaves soon after so he can hide the Chaos Emeralds before it gets too dark out. Everyone else seems to follow, and once Tails, Silver, and I are the only ones left, we decide to hit the hay.

**-x-**

For some reason, I'm dreaming that I'm a buzzer—you know, like those ones used on game shows. Someone's pressing me over and over and over again.

My eyes eventually shoot open, and in front of me is Silver, who is poking my upper arm. Half-awake, I grumble, "What are you doing, Silver?"

"I need to talk to you about something," he explains in a low, solemn voice.

**-x-**

Silver and I are sitting on the hill that we stargazed upon last night. The cosmos have been shrouded by a heavy layer of storm clouds. It's not raining, but the wind is picking up fast. It could pour any second.

"So," I ask, "what's up?"

"Does everyone really think that this whole thing will be resolved when we find and hide the seven Chaos Emeralds?" he questions with a hint of fear in his voice. "The future _will_ catch up with us eventually. There's no promising that we can stop it."

I cock my head to the side. "The hell's _that_ supposed to mean?"

"Well, think about it. Your father must've disappeared in the past—back when he supposedly 'died.' If I'm correct, then he must've somehow traveled to a later point in time—it could be today, tomorrow, a month from now, et cetera—and retrieved the Chaos Emeralds, along with the Emerald Flute. We're not getting anywhere this way."

"What are we supposed to do, then? It's not like we know exactly when and where he'll show up."

"There's where an ironic twist comes in. Either we're going to have to face that perilous future again (much to my dismay), or we're going to have to be on our guard twenty four-seven."

I ponder the two options. The first one could be good; I could expel the _diablo_ lying within my dad without a problem—if only I knew how, that is. Not only that, but Silver couldn't have used a better adjective to describe the future: _perilous_. We almost didn't make it out alive that one time we went, and if I go back, my dad's going to resume trying to merge me and that...impostor. Such a grim fate that would be.

On the other hand, the latter isn't a very reliable option. We could easily miss my father, and he could effortlessly find and steal the five Chaos Emeralds that we have retrieved. Not only that, but he could locate the other two without us knowing, and Station Square could easily begin crumbling after that.

"I think we're going to have to go back," I announce. "Once we get the remaining two Chaos Emeralds, we steal them right away and make a run for it."

He nods. "That's probably the best thing we could do."

We sigh simultaneously and take a few minutes to take in the cloudy sky. "It's amazing how the sky can look so grey at times," I point out in a calm voice, "but then reveal such a gorgeous work of art hiding behind it. It's like...it's like nothing really stays bad forever. Even the bleakest days transition into sunny ones over time. We'll see a sunny day in the end. I can guarantee it."


	21. Damn! We've Been Detected

Today, we decide to go it alone and split up. With only two Chaos Emeralds left to find, there are so many places that they could be. We need to cover all the ground that we can. The good thing about this is that Silver and I have a better chance at being the ones who find both Chaos Emeralds if we split up. We agree to just look wherever. Silver and I discuss our own game plan as we stand in a far end of the room.

"Okay," I decide in a hushed tone, "I'll check Station Square. I already covered Mystic Ruin with Knuckles yesterday, so maybe you should cover that area today. Looking in the same spots as yesterday won't make me of much use, but if you survey the area, you might pick up on some stuff that the knucklehead and I might've missed."

Silver doesn't chuckle at the knucklehead remark; he's as serious as a heart attack right now. "Sounds like a plan." We high five each other, eventually closing our hands into each other and interlocking our fingers. We stare each other in the eyes and smile. Silver's solemn attitude fades for a brief moment, but quickly returns after we blush and let go of the other's hand.

"So," I add awkwardly. "...Let's get moving." That last sentence was somewhat staggered as it came out of my mouth, and the way that I said it almost resembled how a question would sound.

_Comó embarazoso._

**-x-**

Hm. Where to look first?

I suppose I could check the boardwalk again. Now that the carnival's gone, a Chaos Emerald easily could've gotten lost in the cleanup hysteria. Maybe it could be in a store. (Only problem is that I would have to steal the damn Emerald, since Amy's blackmailing had drained me of my funds.) I could check garbage, but that's disgusting. How about I leave that in the back of my mind as a desperate last resort option?

Where else could I—?

Wait a minute. What did I just bump into? There's nothing here...

All of a sudden, a purple chameleon shows himself in front of me. His back is turned to me, so he does a 180 to face me. "You blew my cover," he points out as irritation slowly builds up in both his voice and expression.

"Sorry, man. I didn't know that you were there. I mean—"

He puts his arm around my shoulder, brings me down a little, and cups his other hand over my mouth. "Shhhhh!" he warns me. "I can't be noticed. I'm supposed to be incognito, and you're not helping with that."

"Sorry," I apologize once more, though I don't think that he could hear me all too well, considering that his hand is muffling my speech.

All of a sudden, he drags me into the shadows of the nearest alley, with his reasoning being that I could "jeopardize his entire operation"—whatever _that's _supposed to mean.

**-x-**

We navigate the city through backroads that were hidden inside of the alleys. I have no idea where he's taking me, but I sure as hell don't want to stick around to find out.

"So, why did you kidnap me again?" I dare to ask.

The stealthy chameleon replies as he subconsciously goes through the concealed alley maze, "I told you—you're going to jeopardize my mission. I was just about to break into that museum to retrieve evidence for a client."

"So, wait, are you a mercenary or something?"

"I'm a spy for a detective agency. Chaotix. I assume you've heard of us." The agent makes a sharp right, followed by an even sharper left. "I'm a trained ninja."

"Coolness," I admire. Then, I admit, "I've never heard of your agency, though. I'm kinda new to Station Square. I've only been here for a little less than two weeks."

"Still shocked that you haven't heard of us by now, but whatever." He continues turning at specific corners. This maze is much longer than I had anticipated that it would be.

"When can I go back to civilization?"

"As soon as my boss gives you clearance to leave, Voca."

Shock consumes me. "H-how do you know my name?"

"A good agent always has a vast knowledge of the people he or she is fraternizing with. Besides, we've heard of you. Voca. Chinchilla. Female. Seventeen years of age. Place of origin: Pueblo Village. Native language: Spanish (though you're more fluent in English). Of tribal descent. Father reported dead about four years ago. Runaway. Last seen with Sonic and company."

"Please don't tell me you're stalking me."

"No. I have my sources. The Chaotix has its way of gaining intel. We hear things. We've heard a lot about you as of recently."

_In other words, you're _all_ stalking me..._

Before I can say another word, the chameleon announces, "We're here."

There's nothing but a decrepit wooden door in front of us. "Here" doesn't look to impressive at the moment. "What is this place?" I sneer. "The back door of a restaurant?"

He doesn't answer. Instead, the ninja folds his arms and kicks the door open. He marches inside, and I warily follow behind him. _Just what the hell is going on anyway?_

"Espio!" a crocodile yells at the ninja. "That door's fallin' off the hinges as it is. Could'ja not kick it?" The crocodile was wearing a gold chain around his neck and headphones (that weren't plugged in to anything) on his head. He's standing behind an oak desk. A sole light dangles from the ceiling above his desk. It's the only light in the room, and it gives the room a very vintage mystery film ambiance.

"Hmph," is Espio's response. He seems so nonchalant about the situation.

"Who's the furball?" the crocodile inquires. My teeth begin to grind angrily. I hate being called "furball."

Espio produces a Polaroid photo out of thin air and approaches the crocodile. He puts the photo face-down on the croc's desk and slides it towards the reptile. "This is a photo the anonymous client sent me," Espio explains. "It should explain a lot, Vector."

Vector picks up the photograph. His eyes haven't made contact with the visual yet. "What's that supposed to—" The reptile glimpses at the photo, then looks up at me. "Oh."

Alright, I think I've been weirded out enough for one day. I slowly begin to creep towards the door, when all of a sudden Espio, without even turning around, pulls a_ shuriken_ from out of nowehere and tosses it at me. I duck, and the throwing star impales the door with enough force that it shuts it. My heart begins to beat rapidly. _On second thought, maybe Silver and I should've teamed up_. "The hell was that for?" I growl.

Espio answers, "You must not leave yet."

"The least you could do is tell me what's going on here. Or turn on some lights in here. Either's fine with me."

"Okay!" a jubilant voice agrees from afar. All of a sudden, the rest of the Chaotix headquarters is revealed to me.

Quite honestly, there isn't much to see. Just Vector's desk, a chair, a television, and a potted plant. Oh, and there's an oversized bee floating in the background. "Charmy!" Vector scolds the childish insect. "You just ruined the entire moment!"

"Sorry, boss," Charmy, the source of the jubilant voice, apologizes.

I raise an eyebrow. "So. Care to explain what's going on here?"

"It's a detective agency," Vector remarks. "What more d'ya expect?"

I slap my palm into my face. "That's not what I meant."

Espio questions Vector, "Should we tell her?"

The crocodile laughs heartily. "Eh, why not? We've completed our mission."

"Well, most of it. I ran into her right as I was about to gather some more evidence for the client."

Vector doesn't seem to care about that other stuff. "Whatever. We got the main piece of our mission anyhow."


	22. Graphology

I lock my eyes on the photo in Vector's hand. "Let me see that," I demand.

As I reach my hand out to grab the photo, the crocodile pulls it up into the air before I can grab it. "Nu-uh," Vector refuses. "This is classified information!"

"And yet you still let your field agent carry it around with him? What if _he_ gets kidnapped somehow?"

Awkward silence sweeps the room. Then, Vector sighs. "Fine. You got me there."

He hands over the photo, and I impatiently rip it out of his hand. "It's about time..." I grumble.

The old Polaroid seems to be in near-pristine shape—as if it were taken from a scrapbook that was left untouched for years, or as if the photo was taken yesterday. However, I know this photo. It wasn't taken yesterday. It was taken a few years ago—on the day of the last birthday that I celebrated with my dad. The photo's of my dad and me. I'm sitting at a table. There's a slice of lopsided cake with a candle protruding from the top of it; there's also the rest of the cake on my head. (I still don't get how that happened. It was just like the cake got up and slapped me in the face—all on its own.) I look like I'm about to cry, but my dad is smiling down at me, trying to make me feel better.

My thirteenth birthday party. The image of the day shoots through my mind like a rocket.

I demand, "Tell me where you got this photo."

"Excuse me?" Vector yells with outrage.

"You damn well heard me. Tell me where you got this photo. This came from my family scrapbook. It's _my_ property."

Charmy buzzes over to me and blurts, "Our client sent us a letter. We don't know who he is or why he wanted us to find you." He glances at the photo. "Ooh, cake!" he cheers, getting off-topic.

"Charmy!" Espio and Vector shout at the bee.

Vector scolds the bee, "That's _classified_ information! You do know what _classified_ means right? It means that YOU CAN'T TELL_ ANYONE_ ABOUT IT."

"Was the letter handwritten?" I inquire. If my hunches are right...

Charmy willingly answers, "Mhm! His handwriting's so cool looking!"

Espio gives Charmy a death stare, and Vector looks like he's going to explode with anger and frustration. The crocodile steps up to the bee and smacks him across the room. "Now, what the hell did you do _that_ for?" I shout furiously at Vector. "Beating the shit out of one of your own like that's so uncouth."

Now Vector is giving me a death stare. I stay strong and stare into his eyes. If people can smile with their eyes, then I hope I can express fury with mine. "I demand to see that letter," I say.

Vector questions, "Now, why is it important anyhow? If this jeopardizes our mission, we don't get paid. This guy's promising us big bucks!"

I sigh. "Is that all you guys want? Money?"

"Yeah. What's it to ya?"

"You are all pathetic."

"WE ARE NOT!"

"You'd rather make money than figure out who your anonymous client is. Aren't you guys the least bit curious?"

The chameleon and the alligator look at each other for a moment, exchange a few communicative facial expressions, and then focus their attention on me. "Well...yes," Espio admits, "but how can you—"

"Just let me see the letter. I think I know who your client is."

"Alright!" Vector cheers.

I narrow my eyes. "That's not necessarily a good thing."

**-x-**

I—I can't believe it. This jagged, angular handwriting. The gigantic uppercase letters and the unusually minuscule lowercase ones. The smooth lines of fountain pen ink. Only one person could've written this letter: my father.

The note read:

_Chaotix:_

_I have been referred to you from a few reliable sources. My task is simply straightforward: find the girl posing in this photo. This is an old picture, so expect her to be a few years older than she appears. This is an urgent matter, and I plan to reward you generously if you return her to me within a certain timeframe._

_I will also reward you with a bonus if you find any or all Chaos Emeralds._

_You have three days. _Buenas suerte.

_PS_—_I've attached some more information about her on the back. Hopefully it will make your search much simpler._

_PPS—You won't have to go through the trouble of finding me. I'll meet you here at exactly 5PM on the third day._

An expression of horror sweeps across my face. "No," I deny. "No, no, no. This can't be happening. Not yet. Not here. Not now. Anytime but now."

"What on Earth are you talking about?" Espio questions.

This is where the past meets with the present. My father must've found his way into this time period somehow. I don't know how he knew that I was in Station Square, but I quite honestly don't want to know. He has the Emerald Flute, but not the Chaos Emeralds. He probably knows that I know about the Emerald Flute. For all I know, he could know something about me that I don't. The better question would be: How? How does he know? How does this add up?

I don't know, but one thing's for sure. "You can't turn me in," I implore. "You don't understand how bad this could be—not just for me, but for the world. The very fate of the future hangs into balance, and handing me over will only seal that grim fate. You want money? There'll be no point in having it if your client takes over the world."

"Wait, what?" Vector asks, confused. "I'm lost. What are you talking about again?"

"_Una tempestad está yendo__,_" I mutter.

Espio requests, "Mind speaking in English?"

"Before I explain anything," I barter, "at least tell me one thing: how much time do we have before your client comes to claim your findings?"

A door located near a corner of the room busts open. "Apparently, not much," Vector points out.


	23. A New Hope

_**A/N**—There's a very, very, veeeery subtle _Danny Phantom_ reference in here. You've gotta look super close to notice it..._

* * *

><p>"<em>Papá?<em>"

"_Chincha_. A pleasure to see you again. It's been a while, hasn't it?"

My father looks exactly the way he will look in the future: driven mad, power hungry, and blinded (metaphorically speaking, of course). A sinister, Cheshire cat-like grin widens across his face.

"I assume you know why I'm here, right?" he asks.

I take a few cautionary steps back. "Get away. You're not my father. You're..."

"I assure you, Voca," he disagrees, "that I _am_ your father one in the same." An evil chuckle.

"..._un diablo_. _Un diablo corrupto._ _No eres mi padre,"_ I mutter. For some reason, I throw my fists up in front of my chest, as if I'm preparing to fight. Right now, it looks like a fight is inevitable. Whether or not I could actually win remains in question.

I hear Vector whisper to Espio and Charmy (who just got up after being smacked across the room), "What's she saying?"

I butt in, "He's not my father anymore. He's turned into a hellish fiend—_un diablo_. Something happened to him—something I'm not sure of yet."

_Papá_ doesn't rebut; instead, he chuckles once more. "Oh, _Chincha Pequeña_, just come here and join me already."

I step back again. "No."

My father narrows his eyes. An intense purple aura appears around him. "That's an order. Come here on your own, or I'll come over there and make you."

Another sign that he's not the same person: he's belligerent and coercive, which is something completely unlike my _real_ father. It must be my father, except he's been possessed or corrupted in some way. This reminds me of that dream I had, where Eggman was the ruler in the future, and _Papá_ was simply at his mercy. Maybe...maybe this all has something to do with Eggman.

My father prepares to lunge towards me. Right as he's midair, Espio pops up and skillfully tosses a _shuriken_ at _Papá_ (which, right now, I don't object to). _Papá_ evades the attack, but he is currently distracted. I try to make a run for the door, but one of his hands somehow shoots out far enough to trip me. While I'm down, he uses the unnaturally extended hand to begin pulling me in. Vector and Charmy scurry over to try and release my father's hand, but it's not working. Vector tries to give me a hand by working with Espio to attack my father, but it's not working. All of their attacks are, for some reason, ricocheting off of his body. He's unscathed.

Right as _Papá_ has pulled me within a foot of him, a welcoming face hurries into the scene. It's Silver, and he's panting heavily. He must've seen my father and tried to run after him. "Voca!" he cries.

In desperation, I reach out in front of me and try to pull myself out of my father's grasp. "Silver! Help!" I beg.

But by then, it's too late; the shadow my father is casting on the floor suddenly rises up and materializes into a less-welcoming, familiar image. It's my shadowy doppelgänger, and she's beginning to creep up on me. Suddenly, my doppelgänger's body turns to a mist (similar to my dad's aura) and surrounds me. I can slowly feel my freedom, my life—everything slipping out of my control.

My mind is going blank, and—

**-x-**

"Silver," Espio says to me, "you tried your best."

I'm in complete disbelief. I let her get away. If only I could run as fast as Sonic. I might've had a chance if that were the case. God, who am I kidding? This is all my fault! I could've insisted that we teamed up. I should've anticipated something like this from the start. "No," I disagree, "I didn't. I could've helped her evade that fate in so many different ways. Not only that, but because of me the future is doomed."

"Awh, don't say that!" Charmy says in attempts of cheering me up.

His attempts are futile. I sink to the ground and complain, "She's gone. What's worse is that I feel like this sort of thing has happened to me before—though I can't remember something like this ever happening. It's like some crazed-up case of _dejá vú_. But, for that reason, this is just so much more painful to bear."

Espio looks down at me. "Fill us in on the situation," he requests. "We can help."

Vector mutters under his breath, "We're probably _not_ getting paid anyhow..."

"Vector!" I scold the crocodile. "Seriously, don't you think that there's more to life than money?"

Vector says, "Well,_ someone's_ gotta pay the rent around here."

Espio sighs. "I'll help you."

Charmy flies around in a circle excitedly. "ME TOO!" he agrees with zeal.

Vector looks at his two comrades. Once he realizes that he's dangerously outnumbered, he grunts and finally agrees, "Fine. I approve of this mission."

I'm grateful, but I find no reason to smile. Voca's still gone. I need to find a way to save her. All I can say to Chaotix is, "Thank you. Really."

"So," Vector asks, "what's the situation?"

**-x-**

"A time-travelling Hispanic chinchilla dictator who is from the past and took over the future?" Vector asks in verification. "If I didn't see the jerk with my own eyes, I would've laughed at you."

"If he's really that powerful and destructive, then we better start hunting him down pronto," Espio suggests.

"The only question is," Vector wonders, "where do we look first?"

The obvious place would be the future, but changing the future won't change the present day. So, where _do_ we look?

Wait a minute. If going into the future won't change anything, then going into the past _will_. If I can change the root of things—or at least find the cause of it—then I can fix this no problem. The only thing is, changing the past would possibly make it so that Voca and I had never met. Why can't this time travel stuff ever be ludic and straightforward?

I need to do this alone, but I can't reject their help like that. What to do?

I've got it. "They could very well still be in the present. If you three can look around Station Square and Emerald Coast, then I can run back to Tails' workshop and get the rest of the gang to help me."

"Sounds like a plan," Vector agrees.

I nod my head. "I'm counting on you three. Good luck, and thanks for the help."

We disperse after that.

The next problem I have to tackle: prying two Chaos Emeralds from Knuckles.


	24. Closer Than We Expected

**_A/N_**_—So yeah. I killed off Voca. Not really. She's not quite dead yet. ;D In the meanwhile, it's Silver's turn to tell his story. I've already planned out the rest of the story (which is totally unlike me, to be honest, considering that I usually just wing it), so I'll be able to crank out chapters faster as long as time permits. Sorry this particular chapter took me so freaking long to write; this quarter has been sucking up all of my free time. -_-;_

* * *

><p>If there's one thing I <em>wasn't<em> lying about, it was that I had to go back to Mystic Ruin to get help from the others. But why should I tell all of them? It'll take too long. I need the Chaos Emeralds—and fast. Maybe I should just find Knuckles and find a way to make him hand over two of the Emeralds.

Forget Tails' workshop; I need to go straight to Angel Island.

**-x-**

"No," Knuckles rejects with his arms folded. "I'm not telling you where the Emeralds are."

"Did you _not_ just hear what I said?" I question. "The future is slowly spiraling into ruin! Hand them over. Now."

But Knuckles remains adamant. "Look, man, I'm not handing them over. If they remain hidden, then no one can find them, and there won't be a problem."

"You're not getting it! There already _is_ a problem! Look, when Tails was talking that nonsense about Voca and me disappearing into a portal a few nights ago, he wasn't lying. That actually happened. Voca said she saw some vision of her father trapped in the future by Eggman (though I don't actually see how he has anything to do with the reality of the situation), so I agreed to help her get there. Long story short, Voca's father takes over the world in the future, and he had to kidnap his daughter for his plot. I still haven't figured out what he was planning with that, but we don't have much time. He'll find the Emeralds either way. Now, where are they?"

"How do I know you're not lying?"

"How do you know I_ am_?"

An awkward silence. "Alright, fine. Only two of the Emeralds. And you can't tell anyone where I've hidden them."

Knuckles walks to an area several yards away, then jumps up in the air so he can drill into the ground. A minute later, he jumps out of the hole he made. There are two Chaos Emeralds in his hands: the green one and the darker of the two blue Emeralds. They both make me think of Voca: green is her favorite color, and the blue reminds me of the color of the night sky we used to stare at together.

_Don't worry, Voca. I'll save you, no matter the consequence._

The red echidna returns to me and hands the gems over. "You pull a fast one," he threatens, "and my fist goes through your head."

"Why would I pull a fast one at a time like this?" I point out. After I make sure there's one Emerald secure in each of my hands, I run off, then cross my arms in the air. "Chaos..." I chant, "...control!"

**-x-**

I land in the heart of some village. There are simple, yet very modern adobe houses on either side of me. There are a bunch of anthropomorphic chinchillas lining the streets in front of the houses; some of them are looking at me, wondering where the heck I came from, while others are just minding their own business as they walk away.

Could this be Pueblo Village? Is this the past? Only one way to be sure. I need to find Voca's house, and fast. The question is: Which house is it?

Suddenly, a female chinchilla, probably in her forties, dashes down the righthand sidewalk. Her fur is a calm, light grey with subtle periwinkle accents. She's wearing a sand-colored, strapless sundress that goes down to her knees. There are a bunch of fliers in her hand. She stops at a lamppost and quickly tapes one of the papers to it, then runs off to find another place to tape her fliers to. As she does this, she seems to be brimming with concern.

I put the Chaos Emeralds away and walk over to the lamppost to read the flier. It has a large picture of Voca with the following words underneath it: _Have you seen this child? __Voca, age 17. Female. Last seen with her family three days ago. Please contact her mother, Mariposa, at the number listed below if you have any intimations of her whereabouts._ Underneath this is the Spanish translation.

I don't know how a seventeen year-old could still be considered a child, but I do know that I must catch up with Mariposa. I must've made it to the past. It's not as far back as I intended upon going, but I can still make a change from this far back in time.

"Wait!" I call out as I begin to hurry over to Voca's mother. "Mariposa, wait!"

She's about two blocks ahead of me, but I can still catch up to her if I exert all of my energy—even if I'm nowhere _near_ as fast as Sonic. "Mariposa!" I continue yelling in hopes that she will hear me.

Once I'm only a few yards away from her, she acknowledges my presence and stops in her tracks. She watches me scurry down the block, and when I'm finally standing in front of her, she examines me for a moment. "You're not from around these parts, are you?" she asks with a Spanish accent.

"You don't know the half of it," I explain. "This is no time for chit-chat, though. Mariposa, your daughter. I know where she is."

Voca's mother has an expression that's a mixture of joy, shock, and fear. "Please," she requests, "come back to my pueblo. We must talk."

**-x-**

Mariposa and I are sitting across each other at a tiny, round table in the kitchen of her quaint pueblo—a house whose interior resembles that of any house or apartment I've ever seen in Station Square. She pours me a cup of herbal tea and holds it out to me, but I politely refuse. She begins drinking the beverage as I explain what happened after I met her.

"It's a relief to know that she's alive," Mariposa muses. "She just kinda got up and left out of nowhere."

"What happened before she left?" I ask.

The mother takes a deep breath before she explains, "Her birthday was three nights ago. I remember celebrating it with the _familia._ We were all together in this house as we usually do for all birthdays. We all ate _tapas_ and sang songs—and she appeared to be so content. However, there were times during the night where she looked as if she was uncomfortable—as if something was bothering her. Maybe the entire _fiesta_ reminded her of the night her father left."

I cock my head to the side. "How so?"

"Well, he left on her thirteenth birthday. The entire family was over, like it was a few nights ago. (It's a tradition.) When my husband gave her the necklace she usually wears, I knew there would be trouble. The cake literally getting up and smashing into her face made matters worse."

"Woah, woah. Wait. What do you mean by that?"

"The necklace he gave her was not intended for her until her seventeenth birthday. You see, Voca has powers. The tribe her father's side of the family descends from consisted of a variety of individuals with vastly different abilities. For her father, it was time travel. For Voca, it apparently was psychokinesis. The necklace she wears was a token that helped her expose and channel her powers, though she never really realized that she had them in the first place. She wasn't supposed to find out about her powers until recently, but her father thought differently. He knew that if he could go back in time and find the Emerald Flute, he could make a better future. He could rule the world, he believed—and he needed Voca's help to do so. That's why she got her token so early."

Unbelievable. Voca—a psychokinetic? How did I not see that one coming? I guess we have much more in common than I expected.

"Still, I don't get it. He hadn't had ideas to try to conquer the world in the past. It was...absurd. Out of character. I remember yelling at him after everyone had departed. Voca was supposed to be asleep, but I remember seeing her peek out her window as her father and I quarreled on the porch. I walked inside for a brief moment to tell her to go to sleep. 'Everything is fine,' I lied to her.

"But it wasn't. I returned to the porch moments later, only to find that he had left to pursue his dream. The next morning, I lied to my daughter again, telling her that he had to leave late in the night for business. A few nights later, her father was still gone, so I had to lie to here once more, this time telling her that he died in a tragic train accident that occurred very far away. She was devastated, but I was just as upset; my husband had suddenly vanished in the space-time continuum. He left me with a psychokinetic daughter whose powers acted up every so often. I love Voca dearly, but I never knew what to do with her when a book would start floating, or when her teacher reported that the water fountain acted up after she used it. He left me unprepared. I had been married to him for almost twelve years at the time. I knew that he would never do that. He's not one to betray people."

"I'm psychokinetic as well," I reveal. "I understand how hard it is to adjust to having powers like that. It was easier for me, considering that I was aware that I had powers like that, but considering that Voca managed to adjust subconsciously over a period of time is quite impressive."

"It was a living nightmare at times," Mariposa complains. "I'm just glad she didn't notice her powers. That would've been even worse."

Then, I mention, "As with what happened to Voca's father, Voca explained to me that he had turned into a...what was the word? Something with a 'd...'"

"_Un diablo_?" she suggests. "It means 'devil.'"

"That's exactly it. She knew very well that her father had abruptly changed. Perhaps he actually _is _possessed."

"It's the only logical possibility. I feared that was the case, so I went ahead and did some research. It turns out that the Emerald Flute was created with the essence of a malicious spirit. It's the reason why most of the original chinchilla tribe that lived here hundreds of years ago died out; the spirit possessed the mystic who crafted the instrument, and a temporary renegade was created as a result. (However, the spirit disappeared into the shadows shorty after the disaster.) Most of the echidnas were spared. Most of the chinchillas died in the midst of the destruction, but those who remained were able to rebuild our society and unite with neighboring chinchilla tribes. That's where my family's lineage comes into play, and that's also where my limits are set; I don't have special powers like my husband. Traits passed from members of the original tribe have long since been erased from my gene pool. Voca's a different story; she managed to inherit her gift from her father's end."

I wonder, _Perhaps the spirit targeted him _because_ of his lineage. That also explains why he would target Voca rather than her mother._ I don't explain this to her. It's just a mental thought.

Lastly, the chinchilla takes a sip of her tea, then suggests, "You might be able to free the both of them if you can snap them back into reality. Remind them of who they are. It sounds cliché, I know, but it could very well be all you need to win this fight."

"Thank you," I tell Mariposa with nothing but sincere gratitude. "I will do my best to return them to you safely. Although you might not remember me by the time we meet again—if we ever meet again, that is—I hope this isn't the last time our paths will cross."

She smiles, then keeps her hands busy by rotating, turning, and twisting her seemingly empty tea cup. Mariposa looks down for a moment, then looks back up at me. Her eyes stare straight into mine, and suddenly I can feel _her_ pain and suffering. "Please," she begs, "please help both of them return to normal."

After a pause, I promise, "I will."

Another smile. "You know, I _do_ hope that we manage to meet again some day. You're charming. Dedicated. I approve."

"Wait, approve of what?" I wonder.

With a smirk on her face, she tells me only this: "You'll see."


End file.
